


SPN Commentary 2016

by welkinalauda (iiii)



Series: Salvaged from Tumblr [12]
Category: Supernatural
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-12
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-03-01 11:22:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 20,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18799366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iiii/pseuds/welkinalauda





	1. January

[1/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136383407479/im-finally-getting-around-to-reading-captive-of)

I’m finally getting around to reading  _Captive of the Labyrinth_ , a biography of Sarah Winchester, and I just hit the family trees.  The Winchester side goes like this:

  * John Winchester (1616-1694) born in Kent, England; to Plymouth before 1638; m. Hannah Sealis
  * John Winchester (1642-1718) m. Joanna Stevens
  * **Henry** Winchester (1682- circa 1750) m. Frances White
  * **Johnathan** Winchester (1717-1767) m. Sarah Croft
  * **Samuel** Winchester (1757-1811) m. Hannah Bates
  * Oliver Fisher Winchester (1810-1880) m. Jane E. Hope
  * William Wirt Winchester (1837-1881) m. Sarah Pardee (1839-1922)



[#Captive of the Labyrinth](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Captive-of-the-Labyrinth) [#Winchester family tree](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Winchester-family-tree) [#thought I'd share :)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/thought-I%27d-share-%3A%29)

* * *

 

[1/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136439044734/stanford-is-not-an-ivy)  **Stanford is not an Ivy**

The [Ivy League](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FIvy_League&t=ZDEzN2Y0MzQ2ZTUxNjQ3NWI3NDY5YWUzOWEwMGZlNWU0ZjYwMjViMSxKT3VjSGtBYg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F136439044734%2Fstanford-is-not-an-ivy&m=1) is a sporting conference of colleges in the US Northeast.  It includes seven of the oldest colleges in the US, and Cornell.  

Stanford is ~3000 miles too far to the west to play them regularly.  For this and other reasons, Stanford is not a member of the Ivy League.

[#pet peeve: spn fanfic that calls Stanford an Ivy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pet-peeve%3A-spn-fanfic-that-calls-Stanford-an-Ivy) [#it's one thing when Dean says it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-one-thing-when-Dean-says-it) [#he could arguably not know](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-could-arguably-not-know) [#or not care](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-not-care) [#or be playing ignorant to annoy Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-be-playing-ignorant-to-annoy-Sam) [#all valid character choices](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-valid-character-choices) [#but when the author has a Stanford student claim it's an Ivy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-when-the-author-has-a-Stanford-student-claim-it%27s-an-Ivy) [#it's like biting into a big bag of wtf](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-like-biting-into-a-big-bag-of-wtf)

* * *

 

 

[1/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/136478616884/f-ckyeahfutbol-i-thought-id-explore-the-idea) [Kingdom, the beer of Heaven and memory]

I think it could be argued that the Last Supper scene in BotD is meant to be the parallel with Dean’s second heaven.  They’re both set in the kitchen of the place Dean calls home, and both times, Sam is framed as an outsider to the family love.

* * *

 

[1/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137738680434/sophie-devereaux-was-right)  **Sophie Devereaux was right**

## DO NOT PUT YOUR TRUST IN A MAN.

[#spn 11x10 The Devil in the Details](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-The-Devil-in-the-Details) [#so not fridged](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-not-fridged) [#they went for the character assassination instead](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-went-for-the-character-assassination-instead) [#doesn't matter what we know or how clever we are](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/doesn%27t-matter-what-we-know-or-how-clever-we-are) [#all us females are just silly groupies in the end](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-us-females-are-just-silly-groupies-in-the-end) [#as disposable as kleenex](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/as-disposable-as-kleenex) [#and we deserve what we get](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-we-deserve-what-we-get) [#just for the arrogance of imagining that an actual person](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-for-the-arrogance-of-imagining-that-an-actual-person) [#a male-type person](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-male-type-person) [#ever could value us higher](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ever-could-value-us-higher)

 

[nemmica](http://nemmica.tumblr.com/post/137735601414): Oh don’t worry, I’m sure her death will provide an opportunity for Crowley to Have Emotions and possibly Grow and Change, so it can be a fridging AND a character assassination. (: (: (: yay

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137738680434/sophie-devereaux-was-right): …and they set that up, too, didn’t they, with the “mommy why don’t you love me?” bit.  

So there’s something to look forward to.

[#multitasking misogyny](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/multitasking-misogyny) [#ain't we got fun](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/ain%27t-we-got-fun)

* * *

 

[1/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137760213989/1110-the-devil-in-the-details)

whole lot of men being right and women being not just wrong, but foolishly, fatally wrong.

[#spn 11x10 The Devil in the Details](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-The-Devil-in-the-Details) [#what she said](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/what-she-said) [#that was a very nice character exposition of Sam by Lucifer](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-was-a-very-nice-character-exposition-of-Sam-by-Lucifer)

* * *

 

[1/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137806984578/if-i-were-a-more-principled-person-i-would-have)

If I were a more principled person I would have quit watching Supernatural years ago.  All media is propaganda, and the ideals this show is shilling for are for-real evils at work in the world today.*  

It’s just, the analysis thing is fun.   Far as I know, this is the only place to do real-time collaborative literary criticism.  Frex, [filleretive just said something](http://filleretive.tumblr.com/post/137762709881/on-the-one-hand-im-really-irked-about-rowena-but) about about meta-ing the first half of the season and the bitch/jerk thing, and I went, “Oh!  that’s why he said Michael was touching himself - he’s the  **jerk**.  and that’s why they had Sam phrase it just that way when he said he wouldn’t be Lucifer’s  **bitch** ” and instead of banal coarseness it’s an intentional reference to the ongoing theme of oppositional duality in loving fraternity.   _They made a pattern on purpose, and I just saw it._

Is there another show in production where that sort of thing is even possible?

But they keep  _fucking this up_.  So instead of the conversations that would be fun to have, like about what it means that Crowley-in-Rowena’s-dream gets a Sam doll, neatly gift-wrapped and tied up in a bow, then tosses him aside, instead of  _that_ conversation, I’m stuck talking about how they slapped a collar on Rowena (like Portia) and turned her into a star-struck groupie (like Ruby, like Meg) and made it her own silly fault that a man killed her (like Charlie, like Mary, like Lilith).  

I’m not nearly as principled a person as I wish I were.  So I’m going to keep watching, keep amusing myself with the lit-crit, and also keep pointing out that was some misogynist bullshit that happened last night.  

Best I can do for now.

 

* Their insistence that torture IS TOO an effective means of eliciting information.  The way they only ever consider individual solutions to collective problems.  Everyone dies, but characters played by white men get infinite new lives while everyone else stays dead.  PoC are coded evil and/or die promptly.  Consent has nothing to do with whether or not it was rape.  And don’t get me started on 8x15…

[#spn meta meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta-meta)

* * *

 

[1/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137827993961/darkness-at-noon)  **Darkness at noon**

The effect of massive angelic smiting on Amara was to spread midday darkness over the land.  Not a lot of land, granted, but still.  Smiting Amara did not diminish the sum of darkness; it just weakened the part that’s in conscious control.  Sort of like how blowing up an oil tanker doesn’t destroy the oil, it removes the containment for the oil, spreading darkness over the deep and creating an even less tractable problem.

So if they do manage to ‘kill Amara,’ destroy the entity’s managing intelligence, the result would be to loose the the entirety of the darkness over the face of the earth.  That would be bad.  (Though it would bring up some interesting opportunities for a light-bringer.)

The victory condition in this case is not destruction, but containment.

[#spn 11x10 The Devil in the Details](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-The-Devil-in-the-Details) [#does Amara remind anyone else of the Borg Queen?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/does-Amara-remind-anyone-else-of-the-Borg-Queen%3F)

* * *

 

[1/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/137958705809/this-is-masochistic-but-i-want-casifer-to-say)

Or…

Castiel’s body starts breaking down.  Angst, Sturm, Drang.  Lucifer moves to Dean.  They confront Amara.  Amara eats Lucifer - but not Dean, because she can’t eat Dean.  

Then… well, they could do that thing where male entity of [X] power level beats female entity of [X+1] power level, because she may be God’s sister but she’s still just a girl and so of course an archangel can beat her ‘cause he’s a boy.  

Or, they could have her swallow him, say, “Oooh, that one tastes like gin,” and go on her merry way.  Because she’s God’s sister and he’s just an archangel.  The boys finally remember that they win these things through trickery, not brute strength showdowns, and go looking through the stories of Br’er Rabbit for something they can use.

[#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#I thought she got woozy because of the power drain of teleporting Cas](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-thought-she-got-woozy-because-of-the-power-drain-of-teleporting-Cas) [#but who knows](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-who-knows) [#could be angels are like booze to the Darkness](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/could-be-angels-are-like-booze-to-the-Darkness) [#and consuming Ambriel was like drinking a champagne cocktail](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-consuming-Ambriel-was-like-drinking-a-champagne-cocktail)

* * *

 

[1/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138206320084/the-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life) The Secret to a Long and Happy Life

“Follow your heart. You do that, all the rest, it figures itself out.”  No, no, no.  That is very bad life advice.  Your heart is a will-o-the-wisp that will lead you into the Slough of Despond if you’re not careful. 

Sure, there are some folks who follow their hearts all over the landscape and it turns out fine.  Pry a little, though, and you find they generally started out well-equipped with safety nets.  The rest?  Very, very lucky.  Do the Winchester boys seem lucky to you?

You want a long and happy life, with a nice retirement?  Start socking away your cash  **now**.  Sunset appreciation time is all well and good, but those sunset memories won’t pay for the room with the nice view when you’re 70.  Save up tangible, negotiable wealth.

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#they give such bad life advice on this show](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-give-such-bad-life-advice-on-this-show) [#and call it foreshadowing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-call-it-foreshadowing) [#the savings rate in the US is downright terrifying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-savings-rate-in-the-US-is-downright-terrifying) [#and it's made worse by the magical thinking bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-it%27s-made-worse-by-the-magical-thinking-bullshit) [#propagandized by the corporate media](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/propagandized-by-the-corporate-media)

* * *

 

[1/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138209144628/sam-is-still-sleeping-in-a-bed-hes-outgrown)

Sam is still sleeping in a bed he’s outgrown.  

He’s been framed all season as a child in his brother’s house.  That bed is accentuating that he’s an  _adult_ child in his brother’s house.  He’s long since been capable of getting himself a big-enough bed, but he doesn’t.  He still has not chosen to make the grown-up decorating decisions that would turn his room in the bunker into a comfortable home for himself.  

That sequence after the last commercial - I need to rewatch, but - it’s Sam acknowledging that Dean was and is right, about matters large and small.  It’s a scene right out of  _Father Knows Best_  or  _My Three Sons_ : order is restored when the rebellious child acknowledging the rightness (both moral and factual) of parental authority.  Sam’s shoehorning himself into the ‘good son’ role Dean played when they were younger, which perforce casts Dean as the father.

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#Sam's bed meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam%27s-bed-meta) [#Winchester family dynamics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Winchester-family-dynamics)

* * *

 

[1/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138212340387/antler-chandeliers) Antler Chandeliers

Deer statue out front of the old folks’ home.  Antler chandeliers inside.  Rowena’s reindeer horns that don’t come off.  All the others I missed or forgot.

What’s up with the horns?

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#spn 11x10 The Devil in the Details](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-The-Devil-in-the-Details) [#antlers antlers everywhere](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/antlers-antlers-everywhere)

* * *

 

[1/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138274395087/i-can-defeat-her-is-different-from-i-mean-to)

“I can defeat her” is different from “I mean to defeat her.”

Lucifer sounds a lot like Ruby did, back in the day.  Lots of simple declarative statements about  _ability,_ obscuring the lack of clear statements of  _intent_. 

[#spn 11x10 The Devil in the Details](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x10-The-Devil-in-the-Details) [#they don't lie (much)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-don%27t-lie-%28much%29) [#they answer questions with true-but-irrelevant statements](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-answer-questions-with-true-but-irrelevant-statements) [#that sure sound persuasive](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-sure-sound-persuasive) [#but really aren't](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-really-aren%27t) [#I want make them do logic puzzles](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-want-make-them-do-logic-puzzles) [#until they figure out how to spot this crap in real time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/until-they-figure-out-how-to-spot-this-crap-in-real-time)

* * *

 

[1/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138291412709/banshee-victim-quartet)  **Banshee Victim Quartet**

Padraic Leahy - seems to have been suffering from depression.  Fridged along with his wife Maura for their little girl’s Origin Story.  [If they don’t bring Eileen back on the show can she have her own comic book?  That would be nice.]

Harold Miller (65) - recent hip replacement, erectile dysfunction? or could be he doesn’t need Viagra for personal use; he’s just a shit-stirring mean person who steals other men’s hard-ons and pension checks.  BTW, at 65, he either retired early or started stirring shit the minute he arrived at Oak Park.  (PoC, coded evil, already dead)

Arthur [No Last Name] - ‘heartbroken’ walking plot device.   Has conspicuously blue eyes.   Introduces Dee Wallace to Dean for no discernible reason, then spills the :( story of his wife bailing out.  [Not that unusual a type, actually - hyperverbal extrovert in sales or middle management; he’s used to dumping all his mouth diarrhea on the wife, so when she leaves, he suddenly has neither an outlet nor much self-restraint and he’s Telling All to any captive (or semi-captive) audience he can find, be it file clerks or customers or passing law enforcement.  These guys either find quickly another woman to serve as a dedicated ear, or they get fired.]  Seems to be getting past the first shock.

Dean Winchester - both too much and too little information on this one.  Hard to know which of his many vulnerabilities we’re supposed to think the banshee fixed on.  And, ffs, “banshees prey on the vulnerable” is about as useful an MO as “demons go for someone with a weakness.”

They were all men having hard times, but the ones we saw attacked were smiling when the screaming started.  Padraic was looking cheery and dancing with his wife.   (Harold was probably twirling his mustache.)   Arthur was flirting with Mildred.  Dean had just been told to follow his heart into the sunset.

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes)

* * *

 

[1/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138305811595/pining)  **Pining**

The line could just as easily have been, “Darlin’, if there is one thing I’ve learned in all my years on the road, it’s when somebody’s got someone else on their mind.”  

Written that way, the line would actually have been ambiguous, imo.

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic)

* * *

 

[1/31/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138456945829/yarnyfan-hearseeno-welkinalauda-we) 

“We gotta get a maid.  You know, one with a little uniform and really big, uh…”

[hearseeno](http://hearseeno.tumblr.com/post/138451113936): a really big… cart, yes that’s it a really big cart, filled with cleaning supplies and concealed weapons.

Bwahahaha….

And a nice, idyllic scene of normal life behind her as an aspirational goal.

[yarnyfan](http://yarnyfan.tumblr.com/post/138454026803): with a nice pond which has been [symbolic of family in the past](http://iwatchthepie.tumblr.com/post/104778193027/when-the-waters-rose-in-the-darkness-water-and)?

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138456945829/yarnyfan-hearseeno-welkinalauda-we): a pleasant spot for quiet reflection, certainly.  There’s even a dock.

[#spn 11x02 Form and Void](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x02-Form-and-Void) [#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic)


	2. February

[2/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138655114899/good-episode)  **Good episode**

Jody & the boys all acting like responsible competent adults, in their various ways.  Those two girls bickering excellently together.  A monster with a legit grievance + a monster who’s just a Mean Boy.  Conflicts grounded in extant canon.

They should do all that stuff more often.

Plus I want to know how Jody gets Claire off the hook for the Sword Incident.  I want to know what happens when Alex gets back to school in the morning, and as far as her popular friends know, she’s still one of them… but her boyfriend’s gone missing.  I want to see Jody teaching the girls to cook over the course of a season or two.  I want to see the fight when Claire wants to spend a summer on the road with Krissy & her crew instead of going to the lake with Auntie Donna.  

I want to see those girls grow up.  

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#Bechdel pass](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Bechdel-pass) [#spin off Wayward Daughters now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spin-off-Wayward-Daughters-now) [#THANKSGIVING AT JODY'S EVERY YEAR](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/THANKSGIVING-AT-JODY%27S-EVERY-YEAR)

* * *

 

[2/6/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138833980233/wayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-1)  **Wayward Daughters rewatch notes 1**

THEN

Origin story origin story Dean tells Alex she should be more grateful origin story origin story sword Caddyshack decapitation Dean tells Claire not to do anything stupid

NOW

A couple of horny kids correctly perform the traditional menace-summoning ceremony, and boom! here’s Claire doing something stupid with a sword.

*****

Can’t quite read the side of the bag where Dean got his take-out from.

THAT is not “the Elvis.”  THAT is an example of [the Luther Burger](http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/138645336914/thecwspn-dean-would-like-to-present-the-elvis), and THAT is something that no conscientious restaurateur should allow to congeal in a take-out bag.  Do the writers have something against Luther Vandross, do you think?  Because I’m not sure why they’d put a massive donut-shaped lampshade on this particular bacon cheeseburger and then call it by some white boy’s name.  They do have a “Dean is Wrong” theme cooking lately, so maybe this is part of it. 

Ew, Sam touched the top donut, and then tried to give it back to Dean.  You fondle the food, it’s yours, Sam.  Don’t pretend you don’t know that.

*****

Nice clear shot of the flagpole, with flag a-flapping.  

Spirit Week at Marshall High, home of the [panthers](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.etymonline.com%2Findex.php%3Fterm%3Dpanther&t=NWRiNGViOWNlZjMwYzkyODE1MWJjNDVjOTM4N2YwZWFjNDM1MGRjZCx2WGNsUVlZQg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F138833980233%2Fwayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-1&m=1).    
My HS did Spirit Week as a run-up to Homecoming, in October, but different strokes, I guess.

Alex is in the lead for prom queen!     
(That makes 2 WoC with speaking roles, if not names, who live.)   …isn’t the prom usually in May?  When is this episode happening?    
Henry offers to cross-dress.  Alex shoots him down and turns to her favorite teacher.

Jody basks in Alex’s normalcy.  Then she spots Alex’s birth control pills and it starts to rain.

*****

That’s a  _very_  70s house, there.  

It’s nice when the boys are in sync like that.  Wanting the same things and encouraging each other.    
“What is the good?”   
“The good is a home-cooked meal, Socrates.”   
“Oh hell yeah.  Let’s see if she wants us to set the table or something.”    
“Right with you.”

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me-rewatch-notes) [#Luther burger](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Luther-burger) [#fraternal harmony](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fraternal-harmony)

* * *

 

[2/6/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138836854057/wayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-2)  **Wayward Daughters rewatch notes 2**

FAMILY DINNER!    
(…starts with a shot that reminds me of  _Eraserhead_.  Which I saw once ~30 years ago, so I don’t know whether I’m just confabulating the resemblance or what, but that bird was #$%&ing traumatizing.)

Sam literallydripping chicken.  Dean shoveling it in with his fork in his left hand, tines down:

My [previously-held opinions on the subject](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/129939944214/mittensmorgul-elizabethrobertajones) having been obviated by canon, I harrumph, and move on.

Dean demonstrates what my mother used to call a ‘boarding-house reach.’  I thought Sam was remonstrating over the bad manners, but no, he’s mad ‘cause Dean got the last of the potatoes.  But it’s ok, there’s more.  

Claire wants to talk monsters.  The boys are listening respectfully… but the people who actually live there aren’t.  Claire’s cried “Wolf!” a few times too many.  Alex wants out of the monster talk, so Claire embarrasses her back with Alex’s love life.  Sam & Dean try to escape, explicitly describing themselves as non-family.  Jody responds as though to the family dogs, and the boys stay as directed.

The next bit… Jody’s  _trying_ , and I’d want backup too in that situation if I were her, but Alex’s reluctance to talk about “it” in front of two grown men she barely knows is actually a sign of  **good boundaries** , not an unreadiness to get laid. 

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me-rewatch-notes) [#table manners of the apocalypse](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/table-manners-of-the-apocalypse) [#happiness is another 4 pounds of potatoes on the stove](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/happiness-is-another-4-pounds-of-potatoes-on-the-stove) [#Alex has surprisingly good boundaries](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Alex-has-surprisingly-good-boundaries) [#Claire is taking to sibling rivalry like a shark to water](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Claire-is-taking-to-sibling-rivalry-like-a-shark-to-water) [#poor Jody](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/poor-Jody)

* * *

 

[2/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138848121468/wayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-3)  **Wayward Daughters rewatch notes 3**

That giant wooden fork & spoon set -  **so very 70s**.  And the kitchen’s wallpapered in protective plaid: comforting.

The conversation in the kitchen is sort of at cross-purposes.  Jody’s looking for adult commiseration/assistance, and instead Dean’s identifying with the kids who are benefiting from Jody.  Which is complimentary, I guess, but… Jody points out she’s not actually those girls’ mother.  Dean gets the hint and volunteers Sam to go talk Claire down.

*****

Jody seems to have put horse paintings in every room.

Claire’s still talking case, Sam’s not.    
That “a little late to the Jody and Alex show” - sounds to me like Sam, never quite getting the rhythm of the Dad-n-Dean scene.  Claire’s thinking about rejecting the family-approved path and striking out on her own: basically what Sam did.    
Sam tells her to stick with the family-approved path, because family, home, school are ephemeral but monsters (like diamonds) are forever.  

This is more of Sam’s black-and-white thinking.  He’s really really sure that you have to choose  **normal**  or  **hunting,** and once you choose, no part of the one you didn’t choose can remain in your life.  And… I get the adherence to black-and-white false dichotomies like that.  It makes emotional sense to me.  Or, rather, it  _did_ make emotional sense nine years ago when a 24-year-old Sam told a carnival owner that he was rejecting normal and wanted the weird life.  But Sam’s 30-something now (plus time-outs in various afterlives).  It’s past time for him to websurf his way past the gif of those two dudes going “Both is good” and take their sage advice to heart.  Also, he should text Eileen.  But I digress.

*****

Death of a hot math teacher.

…and we’re back to the flagpole.

*****

Crime scene, everyone acting professional and doing their jobs, when Claire shows up and says the wrong things too loud.

Dean drags her aside and tells her she should be more grateful (like he told Alex in the previouslies).  Alex + BF wander by; Dean attempts to menace.  And  _right there_  is when I decided I really like Kathryn Newton, because that “I’m sure” was a thing of beauty.  

*****

Trophy case!

Detective work with the vindictive school employee.  “Glad you’re on our side,” says Sam.

Dean with EMF meter, pacing the pale corridors alone.    
[Wasn’t there a shot like that in  _Asylum_?  Maybe it was  _After School Special_ …]

My first impression of the janitor was that he was high, and nervous because he’s talking to the sheriff and hoping she won’t go looking for his stash.  Ooh, an he’s got his own big cart of cleaning supplies and concealed weapons.

Chain-link cage in the janitor’s basement.

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me-rewatch-notes) [#hey look Sam's hanging out by a Cage in the Basement](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hey-look-Sam%27s-hanging-out-by-a-Cage-in-the-Basement)

* * *

 

[2/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138849846306/wayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-4)  **Wayward Daughters rewatch notes 4**

Alex and Henry walking in a yellow wood.  

She turns her back to the bridge and starts vague-fessing her past.  Henry insists he doesn’t care.  [I’m less impressed with Katherine Ramdeen - I think she was going for ‘traumatized’ and ended up with ‘blank’ instead.  Hopefully, she’ll have opportunity to practice and improve.]

*****

Back to the family table.  

This time when Jody needs backup, the boys come through.  I think this counts as character growth.

*****

Ambushed in their own garage.  Not good.  

*****

Boy angst, clue, Jody keeps a spare set of keys to her official vehicle above the visor, Alex’s bf revealed as evil.  Sam finds blueprints ready to hand in the villain’s lair.  Dean finds Alex’s phone under the dumpster & he’s really not liking all these people slipping through his fingers.  

Sam finds another occurrence of the word ‘asbestos’ - “That has to be it!”  Well, no, actually, they used that stuff for quite a while and unremediated buildings are still sadly common.  But they’re living in a tv show run by writer fiat, so: that has to be it.

*****

Jody finally gives Claire the validation she’s been grubbing for all episode: Claire was right.  Claire finally gets that her vindication means three people are dead, and shows no delight in it.

*****

Our leading villain explains that he has a legitimate grievance.  And he actually does.  Alex could have warned him, but didn’t.  Her failure to warn led to dire consequences for Rich and his family.  But would her warning him off have worked?  (Mr White Knight was pretty intent on rescuing her.)  Was she psychologically capable of enough defiance to warn him?   What would the consequences have been for her?  Was she duty-bound to prioritize his survival over her own?

And then the janitor monologues past the night he was turned, and the complexion of the problem changes.  His vengeance is focused solely on the bait-girl, rather than encompassing the crew who bit him and turned him and let him go home to his wife and kid.  WTF?  And then there’s the elaborate sadism of turning popular jackass Henry into a vampire expressly so he can be the [Tommy Ross to her Carrie White](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Ftitle%2Ftt0074285%2F&t=YzYyNzM3ZDA4OWI2NGFhZWJiOWFhNDc4MzZlOGFmY2M4NmU1ZDA3MSx0RGlKQWJVSQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F138849846306%2Fwayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-4&m=1).  This is… there was an ethical knot there, and the writers took the stakes away by making one of the victims hapless and repentant, and the other intentionally vicious.  They showed us something complicated and real, then said, “Oops!  just kidding.  Women good, men bad.”  Hmph.

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me-rewatch-notes) [#second time in two weeks the housekeeping staff was using a fake name](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/second-time-in-two-weeks-the-housekeeping-staff-was-using-a-fake-name) [#they should stunt-cast William Katt sometime soon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-should-stunt-cast-William-Katt-sometime-soon)

* * *

 

[2/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138851497392/wayward-daughters-rewatch-notes-5)  **Wayward Daughters rewatch notes 5**

The cavalry has found the building.  [I’m trying to remember when else they’ve used those plastic sheets.   _Exile on Main Street_ , and ???] 

Sam gets knocked into the pit.  

Fight scene fight scene fight scene.  The boys are looking like they know what they’re doing - a welcome change from some recent outings - and Claire looks game.  Henry wants to make sure no one regrets killing him.  So it’s a nice family bonding moment, with machetes.

*****

And another nice family bonding moment the next morning, with bacon.  The girls wanted to do something nice for Jody.  Awwwwww.  Absolutions all around.

*****

Winchesters heading out.  Jody’s agreed to teach Claire something she actually wants to learn, and Claire’s so peppy about it.  

The boys are still in sync about loving the Jody-food, which is still nice to see.

Alex says she wants to get away from the hunting thing (like Sam did, once upon a time), even though Sam just pointed out that she’s vampire bait (like Sam was demon bait, once upon a time).  I can tell how this one ends already.

“As long as everyone wears a condom, we’ll be fine.”  
“I want that bumper sticker.”  
[close-up of tailpipe]

Last shot is of the women in the driveway.  

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me rewatch notes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me-rewatch-notes) [#well the writers room wants Wayward Daughters anyway](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/well-the-writers-room-wants-Wayward-Daughters-anyway) [#bet they've got the first season plotted already](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bet-they%27ve-got-the-first-season-plotted-already) [#just need the suits to say yes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-need-the-suits-to-say-yes)

* * *

 

[2/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139058265609/out-in-the-open-best-winchester-brotherly)

OK, if that isn’t  **Sam’s** box, but  **Dean’s** box, then that’s not Sam getting all sentimental about the prospect of retirement or the memory of Eileen or whatever.  That’s Sam passive-aggressively shoving the idea of retirement under Dean’s nose (with love, of course), because Dean has been stonewalling when Sam tried to talk to him about it.

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic)

* * *

 

[2/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139101234489/so-like-is-amara-really-supposed-to-be-deans)

She’s the personification of Dean’s death wish, is what she is.

Dean’s been tired and wanting to lay down his burdens for at least ten years - “I’m tired, Sam. I’m tired of this job, this life … this weight on my shoulders, man. I’m tired of it.”

Except he can’t just bail out; he’s still got his daddy’s voice in his head yelling at him about duty.  “Your happiness for all those people’s lives, no contest. Right?”

And also, Dean’s toured multiple afterlives, and they’re mostly unpleasant and so far they haven’t ever been permanent.  He’s looking to be pau, kaput, done, his candle blown out and swallowed by the darkness.  Just plain dead won’t cut it.

So here’s Amara, done up to look like one of Vonnegut’s ‘woman = sex = death’ suicide hostesses from “[Welcome to the Monkey House](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vrdiscovery.com%2Fscifimed%2FMonkStry.pdf&t=MTJkODc4YTgyZjhmYjc0MmE3NjE1OTUxYjZkNzFlZmI0YzkyOWFiYSxmUU5kdWNVcA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139101234489%2Fso-like-is-amara-really-supposed-to-be-deans&m=1),” ** offering exactly the blissful oblivion he wants but doesn’t think he’ll find, can’t bring himself to chase.

Deepest darkest desire?  Yes.  Romance?  Not even a little.

_____________  
** content note on the link for suicide, highly approving depictions of rape

[#spn 11x13 Love Hurts](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x13-Love-Hurts) [#spn 2x09 Croatoan](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x09-Croatoan) [#spn 2x20 What Is and What Should Never Be](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x20-What-Is-and-What-Should-Never-Be) [#fucking Vonnegut](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fucking-Vonnegut) [#oh hey - Year of the Monkey started Monday](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oh-hey---Year-of-the-Monkey-started-Monday)

* * *

 

[2/11/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139157689254/rock-paper-scissors)  **Rock-Paper-Scissors**

SAM: Let’s find us a heart.   **I’ll take upstairs.**

DEAN: Ah!  [comedy elbows; puts out his hands in rock-paper-scissors ready position]

SAM: [scoffs]

BOTH: [throw rock; throw scissors; Dean throws paper and Sam throws rock]

SAM: Whatever.   **I’m going upstairs.**

DEAN: OK.

 

Dean won, and it didn’t make a bit of difference.  Sam still went upstairs and Dean still stayed down.

[#spn 11x13 Love Hurts](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x13-Love-Hurts) [#why was the witch building a wall in her basement?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-was-the-witch-building-a-wall-in-her-basement%3F)

* * *

 

[2/15/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139365841454/thumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department)  **Thumbs up to the SPN Casting Department**

11x12 Cold open girl ([Angela Palmer](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm5224212%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t9&t=NDEzOTRlOTliMmE4N2EzNjJjOWQxNzVlM2NkODdlOTBhNjIwNjA0OSw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1))

11x12 Exposition girl ([Merren McMahon](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm3556447%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t12&t=MzQ3ZmRhOWQ3YWRhNzA0NmRmNjRhNzc1YTI1NzY3ZDVhNGIwOGFkZSw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1))

11x12 Principal Ramirez ([Veena Sood](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0814552%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t11&t=NWEwYTNlODhiNzBjOTI3NTQ0NWU3Y2M2YTVmMDY3NzI5ZmU3ZGNjNyw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1)):

11x13 Melissa Harper ([Luciana Carro](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm1382781%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t4&t=NjY2NmY5YjFlNzVhYTllZTM4Mjc0NmZkZWYxNmYzNDY0MTNiZjJiMiw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1)):

11x13 Gladys ([Lucia Walters](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0910295%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t7&t=MzY4YWQwNmYyMTg2N2Y5MjU1ZjcyNzRiYTMwYzcyOWVmN2EwMDc5MCw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1)):

11x13 Coroner ([Carmen Aguirre](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0013683%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t8&t=NTdiYTBmMDgzYzQ4OTJkYjRiMTgwNzA1OWMyYjgyOGQwOTE4YzEyOSw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1))

11x13 Sonja ([Venus Terzo](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.imdb.com%2Fname%2Fnm0856197%2F%3Fref_%3Dtt_cl_t6&t=MTdmODJkMmJlMzUwMGRmMjgyYjJhZjQyODVhNjI3NTkyOGU2NWQ1OCw4NXp6THJ0dQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139365841454%2Fthumbs-up-to-the-spn-casting-department&m=1))

In two episodes with a total of 19 speaking parts, there are seven WoC with speaking roles, four playing characters with names, six of whom survive their episode.

[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me) [#spn 11x13 Love Hurts](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x13-Love-Hurts) [#I hope this is a trend not a blip](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-hope-this-is-a-trend-not-a-blip) [#Production: Make good choices](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Production%3A-Make-good-choices)

* * *

[ 2/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139532644109/apocalypse-patisserie-like-seriously-where-did) [Location of that dock at the end of _The Vessel_ ]

I’ve decided to pretend it’s this farm pond:

but re-sized for narrative convenience.

[#spn 11x14 The Vessel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x14-The-Vessel) [#kind of like Sioux Falls](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kind-of-like-Sioux-Falls) [#or wherever the hell that nursing home was supposed to be](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-wherever-the-hell-that-nursing-home-was-supposed-to-be) [#eldritch bunker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/eldritch-bunker) [#psychic scenery](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/psychic-scenery)

* * *

[ 2/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139615251579/oooohhh) [fate of the _Bluefin_ ]

I was hoping that the hand of god time-shifted it to now.  

So, like, all that vintage subtext becomes current, while making the (evil) surface ship explode and sink.

 

 [#spn 11x14 The Vessel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x14-The-Vessel)[#also Gaving MacLeod would get some company](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/also-Gaving-MacLeod-would-get-some-company)[#in the Time Displaced Sailors Club](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-the-Time-Displaced-Sailors-Club)[#liven things up over there](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/liven-things-up-over-there)

* * *

 

[2/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139699735939/bunker-pantry-shelves)  **Bunker pantry shelves**

 

Seriously?

I mean, the “Magic Baking Powder” on the same shelf with a bag of seeds is cute and all, but wtf is up with keeping the racist pottery on display?

[#spn 11x14 The Vessel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x14-The-Vessel) [#bunker pantry shelves](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bunker-pantry-shelves)

* * *

 

[2/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139776591103/delphine)  **Delphine**

  * “Delphine” means “of Delphi,” site of the [ancient oracle](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FPythia&t=M2E3M2YwM2NlODQ1MjI2NDBmZDM5MWVhZWNiZTYyZTEzN2ViNzUzYyxNZFZ1NnRNMw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F139707028874%2Fdelphine&m=1)  
  * the root of the city name may be the Greek word for womb
  * if you prefer Latin to Greek, it’s from “dolphin” (which swims well but must surface to breathe, like a submarine)
  * sounds all romantical and French
  * subtract the elf and you’ve got Dean



I have no idea what Seydoux means - my French is nonexistent, and google either “corrects” my spelling or returns much information on Léa Seydoux.

 

 

[sandraugiga](http://sandraugiga.tumblr.com/post/139707751252)

I thought it might also be linked to the Delphine of Orphan Black, who is a bisexual.

 

[sillyme6](http://sillyme6.tumblr.com/post/139720066764)

Speaking of Lea Seydoux, she is a French actress who got her breakthrough with the film ‘La Vie d'Adele’, where she played a lesbian lady.

 

prairiedusting Deactivated

Listen to it.   
Seydoux.  
Say, do.   
She is a woman of letters, a woman of action.   
Say it, then do it.   
She tells Dean she will sacrifice herself for his mission, then she does just that.

She is a promise, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[#spn 11x14 The Vessel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x14-The-Vessel) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#that sounds right](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-sounds-right) [#so to speak](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-to-speak)

* * *

[2/23/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139856552069/elizabethrobertajones-welkinalauda)

 

 

firstdrafted Deactivated

i will  _only_ accept dean & sam questing for the arc of the covenant if it turns out the arc is semi-sentient and takes delphine’s form as the last being its power was closely entwined with to negotiate with them

 

[welkinalauda](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139840849594)

ok, but what if the ark has been masquerading as the green cooler all this time?

 

[elizabethrobertajones](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/139847215158)

I’m going to be really disappointed if the Baby is God speculation is ruined by the fact it was the green cooler on her back seat the entire time causing said speculation.

Of course that’s not really affected if we assume the green cooler is another thing touched by God BECAUSE of being in the back seat of Baby but then it’s not at all compatible with being a transitional form for Delphine…

 

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139856552069/elizabethrobertajones-welkinalauda)

ok, so how about, Baby (aspect of God) and the cooler (ark) were both drawn to the vessels of the archangels like filings to a magnet, and have been hanging out together, all divine and inanimate, waiting for the stars to align and the ark to be reunited with its chipped-off bits so that they can actively intervene in events.  The ark speaks with the face of Delphine (see above) and Baby looks like Dean (? either Dean or John).

[#the green cooler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-green-cooler)

* * *

 

[2/23/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/139899650289/i-wouldnt-worry-about-it-get-some-rest-you)

“I wouldn’t worry about it.  Get some rest.”  
“You know I can’t rest.”

You can’t?  What’s up with that, Petey?

[#spn 11x14 The Vessel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x14-The-Vessel) [#no rest for Giraldi](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-rest-for-Giraldi)

 


	3. March

[3/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141348870159/prairiedusting-mittensmorgul) 

I expect when Eileen moves in, she’ll insist the main TV viewing area be moved out of Sam’s room, and that will have a domino effect that culminates in couches, a coffee table, and Dean’s personal La-Z-Boy.

[#Eileen moves in to the Bunker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Eileen-moves-in-to-the-Bunker) [#Dean gets a recliner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-gets-a-recliner) [#the logic is inescapable](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-logic-is-inescapable)

* * *

 

[3/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141360780797/the-girl-next-door)  **The Girl Next Door**

I sometimes think my opinion of this episode is entirely due to the fact that when I first saw it, I’d re-watched  _Wonderfalls_  only a few weeks before.  So I wasn’t seeing good sweet Kaylee begging for her son’s life, but rather, faithless badly-written Heidi Gotts trying to con everyone within earshot. 

I mean yes, polysemy, multiple interpretations, all that good stuff.  I just cannot see, at all, in any way, how Sam is right on this one.  

Amy killed four people, that we know of.  (Five, counting her mother.)  Four human beings are dead because of her choices.  

But the dead people get glossed over… I guess because they’re bad people?  The old NHI thing that lazy cops do when a prostitute is murdered - No Humans Involved => not a crime worth wasting resources on.

Or, the four people Amy murdered don’t count because  **Amy says**  she only did it because her son was sick, and  **Amy says**  he’s well now, and  **Amy says**  that means she won’t have to kill anyone else, and  _Sam didn’t even bother asking_  if her son’s apt to get sick again, and what she’d do about it if he did.  And Amy couldn’t be spinning Sam a line, no way no how she’s motivated to tell him any story that will get him off her case for long enough for her to blow town.  Amy’s telling the perfect truth, and Sacred Maternal Bullshit makes the four people Amy cold-bloodedly stalked and murdered an appropriate sacrifice to save Amy’s son, so those deaths go right down the memory hole.

Really?

*****

I didn’t find Dean’s lines in that last scene persuasively written either - but Amy had demonstrated that when she thinks she has a good enough reason, she will kill people.  In the war between monsters and humans, she was an active enemy combatant.  Dean dealt with her accordingly.  Jacob’s still a non-combatant, so Dean didn’t kill him.  (Might have been smart to ask more closely where the kid was going to go, and how he planned to get along.  But the kid hadn’t done anything to get killed for, so.)

*****

The aftermath of this episode threw the season off-kilter for me.  Dean presumably thought killing Amy was the right thing to do, so why does he keep acting so squirrelly about the whole thing?  I kind of want to corner Sera Gamble and ask what she was going for here.  Whatever it was, I don’t think it came through.

[#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door) [#I suspect young Amy was meant to be playing at being Caril Ann Fugate](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-suspect-young-Amy-was-meant-to-be-playing-at-being-Caril-Ann-Fugate) [#thinking she'd stumbled across her Charlie Starkweather](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/thinking-she%27d-stumbled-across-her-Charlie-Starkweather) [#but young Sam wouldn't play along](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-young-Sam-wouldn%27t-play-along) [#and Amy had to kill her mother herself](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Amy-had-to-kill-her-mother-herself)

[3/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141531314244/the-girl-next-door) 

[justanotheridijiton](http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/141507621634) Below the cut are an assortment of PR talking points from Sera Gamble, Bob Singer, Jensen Ackles, and Daniel Loflin related to this storyline.

[Keep reading](http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/141507621634/the-girl-next-door)

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/141531314244/the-girl-next-door) Thank you! for pulling all that together.

Interesting to know their inspiration was current Swedish horror.  I’m surprised, actually - when I see teen killers who start with her family, I assume Starkweather and his many screen adaptations.  

The Amy incident feels to me like a broken Aesop.  Like, if the writers wanted a fraternal conflict with substance, they should have written Sam’s side as something more defensible than “we should both ignore an active threat to public safety because I kissed a monster fifteen years ago.”  They should have had Dean do something objectively wrong, something more than doing his job and postponing a quarrel with his brother.  As written, the payoff is way out of proportion to the foundation, and it really doesn’t work for me.  

[#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door)

* * *

 

[3/31/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142002163289/the-one-you-killed-has-the-keys-stunt) 

“The one you killed has the keys.”

\- stunt werewolf #2 had handcuff keys  
\- lead werewolf had car keys  
\- Sam had car keys

I may be reaching, but I think there’s a pattern there.

[#spn 11x17 Red Meat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x17-Red-Meat)

 

 

 

 


	4. April

[4/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142059115910/that-penultimate-scene)  **That penultimate scene**

> DEAN: How you doing?
> 
> MICHELLE: How’s your brother?
> 
> DEAN: The doc says that, uh, well, when Corbin choked him, um, Sam’s body went into shock.  His breathing, his heartbeat slowed down til it was nothing.  So he was, uh, just mostly dead.  But he’ll be OK.
> 
> MICHELLE: Must be nice.  That wasn’t… Corbin wasn’t a killer.
> 
> DEAN: I know.
> 
> MICHELLE: He did it for me.
> 
> DEAN: Michelle, this is going to be very hard.  But  **you will be OK**.  And eventually… eventually,  **you will get back to normal**.
> 
> MICHELLE:  **No, I won’t**.  They said I could leave an hour ago.  But where am I even supposed to go?  After everything we survived together, I watched the man I love die.   **There’s no normal after that**.

Dean’s already watched men he loves die.  After all they’d survived together, Sam, Castiel, and Bobby died right in front of him.  Dean didn’t see his daddy actually keel over, but he did handle John’s corpse and lay him to rest.  (And that’s just the men.)

So that scene there was Dean trying to be the voice of experience and tell Michelle that seeing your next-of-kin killed in front of you is something that can be got over.

Michelle is the writers’ voice calling Dean on his bullshit.  After what he’s seen, he’s not OK.  The place he got back to is not ‘normal’.

And this is him realizing she’s right:

  


[#spn 11x17 Red Meat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x17-Red-Meat) [#I'm not OK you're not OK](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-not-OK-you%27re-not-OK) [#spn 2x01 In My time of Dying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x01-In-My-time-of-Dying) [#spn 2x21 All Hell Breaks Loose](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x21-All-Hell-Breaks-Loose) [#spn 5x22 Swan Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x22-Swan-Song) [#spn 7x10 Death's Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x10-Death%27s-Door) [#spn 9x03 I'm No Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-9x03-I%27m-No-Angel) [#list of episodes in which Dean sees a loved one die not exhaustive](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/list-of-episodes-in-which-Dean-sees-a-loved-one-die-not-exhaustive) [#btw I wouldn't mind seeing Michelle back again](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/btw-I-wouldn%27t-mind-seeing-Michelle-back-again) [#that scene was nicely done](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-scene-was-nicely-done) [#Erin Way can act](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Erin-Way-can-act)

* * *

 

[4/4/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142280759389/corbin-from-a-french-surname-which-was-derived)

[Corbin](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.behindthename.com%2Fname%2Fcorbin&t=MzkyMjQ2ODY4YmUxYjY3Y2NlYzljZmJlM2M2YTQ5ZmM1MDA2Nzg4NCxEU1ZMcXRKYw%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F142280759389%2Fcorbin-from-a-french-surname-which-was-derived&m=1):  From a French surname which was derived from  _corbeau_  “raven”, originally denoting a person who had dark hair. The name was probably popularized in America by actor Corbin Bernsen (1954-).

[#spn 11x17 Red Meat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x17-Red-Meat) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#black birds and backwoods company](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/black-birds-and-backwoods-company)

* * *

 

[4/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142394161824/father-son-unholy-ghost)  **Father, Son, Unholy Ghost**

For a few minutes there, Castiel’s body held a three-in-one subdivinity.

  * Lucifer, the oldest, who said he could be called God
  * Castiel, who has asked again and again that this or that cup pass from his lips, but goes to be sacrificed in the end
  * Crowley, a ghost with a  _really big_  ego problem.



****[#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel) [#Mt 28:19](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt-28%3A19) [#Mt 26:39](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt-26%3A39)

* * *

 

[4/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142395665244/things-im-happy-about-male-archangel-power-up)

Things I’m happy about:

  * Male archangel + power-up  **Does Not**  beat a female God-level entity, doesn’t even come close
  * Amara barely even pretends to humor the ants scurrying about her feet
  * Bechdel pass
  * Rowena’s back
  * Castiel’s safe happy place is the bunker kitchen
  * The “If…?” chorus
  * the Big Bad articulated her agenda
  * Right at the end, I was all, “Hey!  That’s a train!”



Things I’m not happy about:

  * Previouslies go at the top of the show.  When they waste running time with clips from old episodes, it makes me think that a) they didn’t write enough script and took the laziest shortcut to fill time, or b) they don’t trust the actors to convey meaning nor the audience to understand.  Or, this being Buckleming, both.  
  * Crowley survived  _again_
  * The correct answer to “Where’s Rowena?” is, “Somewhere in Hell, I suppose - Lucifer snapped her neck.”  Why the Once and Future King of Hell was speculating on her corpse instead of her soul I don’t understand.
  * Is there a reason Amara didn’t inhale every soul in Heaven?  



What I wish had happened:

Rowena pokes her head out, sees it all going south.  She Scottish-curses under her breath.  Then she strides out into the sanctuary and performs a rite that zaps the Castiel-vessel - containing Lucifer, Castiel, and Crowley -  _away_.  Sam and Dean flip out; enter Amara.  Reaction shots all round.  Scene switches to inside the cage, where Adam’s body hits Castiel’s body with a rock.  Commercial.

[#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel) [#I kind of want to call Castiel's safe happy place 'Hell's Kitchen'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-kind-of-want-to-call-Castiel%27s-safe-happy-place-%27Hell%27s-Kitchen%27) [#even though it doesn't really fit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/even-though-it-doesn%27t-really-fit) [#This train's got the disappearing railroad blues](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/This-train%27s-got-the-disappearing-railroad-blues)

* * *

[4/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142450743919/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-things-im-happy)

sandraugiga: How about she Scottish curses and the rite switches Castiel for Charlie. Charlie turns out to be God.

 

welkinalauda: Oh, hey - 

Charlie is an aspect of God; we can tell by her name.  She is the one who went willingly to be sacrificed (and will be resurrected anon).

Castiel had a three-in-one Trinitarian thing going on for about a minute, with his body housing Lucifer (says we can call him god), Castiel (the willing sacrifice, spirit-made-flesh that he might be sacrificed), and Crowley ((un)holy ghost with an ego problem).

Both Charlie and Castiel are Christ figures, and so is Dean.  Two more, and they could do a whole Power Rangers thing.

[#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel) [#spn 10x21 Dark Dynasty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x21-Dark-Dynasty) [#I never actually saw Power Rangers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-never-actually-saw-Power-Rangers)

* * *

 

[4/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142503992119/filleretive-when-rowena-first-showed-up-i-loved) [on the tackification of Rowena's styling]

The cheapening of her style goes well with the hand-wringing she was doing in that church.  I was expecting her to stride forth and dispatch Lucifer and Crowley to the Cage in a Castiel package with a few words of Latin and a flick of her wrist.  Instead we got a  wee, sleekit, cow’rin, tim’rous beastie, pleading with the boys to  _do something_  before it was too late, and darting back into hiding.

For whatever reason, they de-powered her for this episode, and the folks in the styling departments reflected that.

[#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel) [#character assassination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/character-assassination)

* * *

 

[4/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142528146785/theyve-spent-another-season-nattering-on)

They’ve spent another season nattering on about who’s  **strong** enough to kill the big bad, and what kind of power-ups can make our heroes  **stronger** , who’s the  **strongest** champion for the fight: basically one big Tim Allen-fest.

Yeah, no.  Our heroes don’t beat the cosmic forces arrayed against them by being  **stronger**.  (If they can out-strong the Big Bad, it’ll turn out she was the last lock holding in Something Worse.)

When Our Heroes actually beat the cosmic forces, it’s with trickery and traps, unexpected allies and the occasional Yellow Crayon Speech.  

I wish they’d stop wasting time searching for the cosmic steroid that will get them muscly enough to wrestle the Darkness and win - because there isn’t one - and instead start devising the plan to yellow crayon Amara back into her cage and set a better lock this time.  

They should already have learned this lesson.

[#spn season 11](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-11) [#philosopher kings and warrior kings](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/philosopher-kings-and-warrior-kings) [#They had Lucifer being Eliot Spencer when he should have been being Nate Ford](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/They-had-Lucifer-being-Eliot-Spencer-when-he-should-have-been-being-Nate-Ford) [#c'mon guys let's see some trickery already](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/c%27mon-guys-let%27s-see-some-trickery-already) [#MORE POWER](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/MORE-POWER)

* * *

 

[4/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142560413082/idealizing-parentification-is-fetishizing-abuse) [Idealizing parentification is fetishizing abuse]

[#Hell yes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hell-yes) [#all that 'Angel in the House' perfect selfless helpmeet bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-that-%27Angel-in-the-House%27-perfect-selfless-helpmeet-bullshit) [#is unbearable pressure](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-unbearable-pressure) [#impossible expectations](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/impossible-expectations) [#when imposed on *grown women*](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/when-imposed-on-%2Agrown-women%2A) [#Spinning a fantasy in which a child does it all perfectly](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Spinning-a-fantasy-in-which-a-child-does-it-all-perfectly) [#is above and beyond that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-above-and-beyond-that) [#AND ALSO](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AND-ALSO) [#Sam's not baggage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam%27s-not-baggage) [#kid was homeschooling himself at ten](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kid-was-homeschooling-himself-at-ten) [#routinely fending for himself by the time he hit puberty](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/routinely-fending-for-himself-by-the-time-he-hit-puberty) [#It helped Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/It-helped-Sam) [#a lot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-lot) [#that Dean was *trying* to be the helpmeet in their family constellation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-Dean-was-%2Atrying%2A-to-be-the-helpmeet-in-their-family-constellation) [#but pretending Dean was 100% successful at it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-pretending-Dean-was-100%25-successful-at-it) [#to my mind](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-my-mind) [#diminishes them both](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/diminishes-them-both)

* * *

 

[4/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142587653639/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-theyve-spent)

sandraugiga: In the beginning of the season, there was a sign, clearly visible. 

“No weapons beyond this point”

And my guess is that there will be no weapon that can resolve the conflict this season. So it does make me wonder how everything is going to be resolved.

welkinalauda: There’s been a lot of construction in the background - all kinds of road work, some home remodeling - so there’s hope they’ll take the next five episodes and build themselves a better mousetrap.

[#or possibly reassemble the Ark of the Covenant out of scraps and](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-possibly-reassemble-the-Ark-of-the-Covenant-out-of-scraps-and) [#the green cooler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-green-cooler) [#be nice to see the boys doing construction again](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/be-nice-to-see-the-boys-doing-construction-again)

* * *

 

[4/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142617347889/lucifer-was-awful-sure-he-could-kill-amara-with)

Lucifer was awful sure he could kill Amara with nothing but a Holy Widget and his own awesomeness.  And he should know better, shouldn’t he?  He was there for the last go-round with her.  He should know that weapon’s not enough.

 

Unless they weren’t trying to kill her last time.  

God was still maintaining martial order among His progeny at that point.  The archangels would have been following God’s strategy to achieve God’s goals, and what they achieved in the end was to lock her away.  So maybe that was all God was ever trying to do?  Maybe it was sentiment, maybe it was not wanting to fundamentally unbalance the cosmos, maybe He knew it plain couldn’t be done - but I think killing her was never on His agenda.

Which would mean that Lucifer had never had occasion to gather experimental evidence on what it might take to kill the Darkness, and, therefore, that his misplaced confidence about the current conflict was just ridiculously misplaced, rather than flatly delusional.

[#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel)

* * *

 

[4/14/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142798223780/was-cole-could-have-been-really-amazing-if-he-was) [when instead of bringing back a cool character, they invent a new, very similar but less-cool character]

Or sometimes: “Remember that one awesome character?  How about an entirely new character who’s the same kind of monster, but played by the guy who played one of her sidekicks?”

[#Shoulda been Lenore in Purgatory](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Shoulda-been-Lenore-in-Purgatory)

* * *

 

[4/15/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142881254656/cas-you-just-gave-up-an-army-for-one-guy-er)

“Cas, you just gave up an army for one guy.”

Er, yes?  Why wouldn’t he?  He said over and over how he didn’t want an army, and Metatron finally bullied him into taking the damn army, so now he’s got an army he never wanted… and people are surprised and impressed that he dumped that army for the sake of the human he personally rescued from Hell and has been baby-sitting after ever since?

[That angel army is like the set of dishes my mother’s cousin was trying to give away, and she kept  **asking** and  **asking** , until I took the damn dishes just so she’d stop hassling me about it.  And, you know, there was a time when I would have been so happy to have free dishes - but she wasn’t trying to give them away   _then_.  She waited until I was past forty and well-provided with dinnerware and only then did she insist on foisting her damn dishes on me.  Those dishes sat in the basement gathering dust until I found someone to haul them away last month.  Finally.]

Anyway:  **Of course**  Castiel gave up an army for one guy.  He didn’t want the army.  He did want the guy.

[#spn 9x22 Stairway to Heaven](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-9x22-Stairway-to-Heaven)

* * *

 

[4/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143054975749/justanotheridijiton-310-803-i-keep) [picnic scenes]

I keep thinking both of these must be referring back to the same scene from some outside original source.  A movie?  Probably a movie.  Something that was in heavy rotation on AMC for a while and got left on for background noise as the boys were falling asleep in motel after motel after motel so it got ground subconscious-deep into both of them that the specifics of this scene - basket, blanket, grass below, bracken behind, wine glass, pretty girl in a sundress - are what it looks like for normal people when they love and are loved in return.

[#spn 3x10 Dream a Little Dream of Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x10-Dream-a-Little-Dream-of-Me) [#spn 8x03 Heartache](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x03-Heartache) [#the apple pie life](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-apple-pie-life) [#Maybe something with Doris Day?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Maybe-something-with-Doris-Day%3F)

* * *

 

[4/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143384918241/proposed-sam-in-the-girl-next-door-insisted-that)

Proposed: 

Sam in  _The Girl Next Door_  insisted that his sentiments should prevent Dean from taking the rational course of action.  Dean in  _Hell’s Angel_  insisted that his sentiments should prevent Sam from even talking about what the rational course of action might be.

Discuss.

[#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door) [#spn 11x18 Hell's Angel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x18-Hell%27s-Angel) [#reverse Amy Pond](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/reverse-Amy-Pond)

* * *

 

[4/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143524086909/about-supernatural-11x08-just-my-imagination) [why was "Just My Imagination" nominated for a Hugo?]

It’s a pretty fair episode, as motw episodes go, but still, the wrong episode to nominate for an award.  I think most would agree that the best SPN ep from 2015 was “Baby.”  Those who don’t think it was the best episode would still agree that it was the most conspicuous award-bait, being shot from the pov of the car and all.  

I think they picked “Just My Imagination” because the [denouement is Dean mansplaining ](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D11.08_Just_My_Imagination_%28transcript%29&t=Mjg1MDI3YTE1MTFkZDQ1OTlhNmM2MWNmMjk1YjMxMTk5NmU1NTViNCxudUg0MU1acQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F143524086909%2Fabout-supernatural-11x08-just-my-imagination&m=1)to the shrill hysterical villain that she should give up on avenging her sister Audrey’s death because a) the being who led Audrey into traffic was a good friend to Dean’s brother Sam, and b) revenge isn’t worth it.  And… it works.  This woman has her six-fingered man at rapier-point, and walks away because the Righteous Man says “trust me.”

A woman is on the same sort of revenge quest that’s been motivating our heroes since the pilot, and she’s depicted as shrill and hysterical, and she abandons her quest on the word of a man she only knows as a cohort of her enemy. 

A man tells a woman what to do, and she does as she’s told.  It’s contrary to her interests, and phrased in a way that assumes she will prioritize some (male) stranger’s experience over her own, and is truly a nonsense hash of a speech - but she does as she’s told, because a man told her.

The mermaid in the wading pool was probably just a bonus.

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#Hugo slate of the hydrophobes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Hugo-slate-of-the-hydrophobes)

* * *

 

[4/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143541832225/lot-of-people-with-diminutive-names-in-this-one)

Lot of people with diminutive names in this one.

Matty = Matthew, an apostle   
Jessy = Jesus  
Cesar = Caesar

Cori = heart  
Libby = ?

Etta, like Tina, is a feminine diminutive ending and might be short for a lot of things, or used independently.  I’m thinking they might be referring back to [Etta Candy](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fio9.gizmodo.com%2F10-ways-etta-candy-was-more-badass-than-wonder-woman-1760809850&t=MWQ5ZDA5YTcwNTgxN2YxNTlmM2E0MzVjN2M5OGUyMWRlMzk1MWRhNixKZXE3cHI4RA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F143541832225%2Flot-of-people-with-diminutive-names-in-this-one&m=1).  Maybe.  (Sure looked like she could eat Sam right up…)

[#spn 11x19 The Chitters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x19-The-Chitters) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game)

* * *

 

[4/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143573799079/nemmica-welkinalauda-lot-of-people-with)

nemmica: Libby is a diminutive of Elizabeth, btw!

welkinalauda: [didn’t gabriel knock up elizabeth too?](http://nemmica.tumblr.com/tagged/didn%27t-gabriel-knock-up-elizabeth-too%3F) [was john the baptist a glowing monster baby?](http://nemmica.tumblr.com/tagged/was-john-the-baptist-a-glowing-monster-baby%3F) [this is taking me weird places lmao](http://nemmica.tumblr.com/tagged/this-is-taking-me-weird-places-lmao) 

Ooh - I was totally not thinking of St Elizabeth there; I was expecting some kind of word-play to go with the Cori/heart thing.  But St. Elizabeth fits… 

[removing nonsense ramblings.  I may try again later.]

[#spn 11x19 The Chitters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x19-The-Chitters) [#dammit now I have to go actually read Acts](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dammit-now-I-have-to-go-actually-read-Acts) [#which I was supposed to do for Sunday school and didn't](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-I-was-supposed-to-do-for-Sunday-school-and-didn%27t) [#Lk 1:5-25](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lk-1%3A5-25) [#Mt 22:21](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mt-22%3A21) [#definitely wierd places](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/definitely-wierd-places)

* * *

 

[4/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143643447139/outside-gunnison-colorado-1989)  **Outside Gunnison, Colorado 1989**

  


> JESSY: It finally happened.  
> MATTY: What, you didn’t get detention this week?  
> JESSY: Me and Jackie.  We kissed.  
> MATTY: Hey, can I stop hearing about him every two minutes now?  ‘You think he likes me?  Jackie looked at me.  I-I think he looked at me.’  
> JESSY: He definitely likes me.  
> MATTY: Jess,  **you know you gotta be careful**.  
> JESSY: I’m not an idiot.  
> MATTY: Yeah, I know, but  **it’s not just Ned and Charlie and those dicks who’ll stomp your head in.  I mean everybody at school and in town… they won’t leave you alone**.  
> JESSY: OK.  I wish we were gone already.  Can’t you lie and say you’re eighteen and get a fake ID?  
> MATTY: California’s expensive, OK, we just gotta save some more money.  
> JESSY: You could… sell your collection.  
> MATTY: I will, ok, when it’s time.  I can get at least $900 for the buffalo nickel. and another $400 for the double eagle.  
> JESSY: That’s a lot.  
> MATTY: Look, Jess, as soon as I turn eighteen, I promise, we’re going to get out of here, ok?

So there’s like three different things going on in this conversation.

– Jessy is twelve in the spring of 1989, which means he was born in 1978 or so.  Dean’s a year younger.  Folks have speculated on what John Winchester said to Dean to keep Dean so hyper-focused on performing masculinity and heterosexuality for so long… and I think it was pretty much what Matty says to Jessy here.  Only, you know, over and over, in each new (potentially shitty) town, with the standard John Winchester lack of emotional intelligence and an added dollop of ‘think what will happen to Sam if you get yourself stomped.’  

– Matty has a coin collection, which we can figure is precious to him personally, since he went to the trouble of collecting it and all, and also has material value on the open market.  He’s willing to trade it away in hopes of rescuing his little brother.  

– Matty won’t go until he’s eighteen.  He’s waiting until he can legally leave, legally work, maybe even have a shot at getting legal custody of his fourteen-year-old brother.  He’s taking the long view, here.  Things suck in the here and now, but if they can tread water for a couple more years, they can head west and make a real start of things.  

Matty is paralleling three Winchesters at once.  It’s kind of dizzying.

[#spn 11x19 The Chitters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x19-The-Chitters) [#John Winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Winchester-is-a-bad-parent) [#later Jessy says his mother moved them away after Matty went missing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/later-Jessy-says-his-mother-moved-them-away-after-Matty-went-missing) [#so in a roundabout way Matty did rescue Jessy from that shitty little town](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-in-a-roundabout-way-Matty-did-rescue-Jessy-from-that-shitty-little-town)


	5. May

[5/1/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143686979355/before-jessy-could-go-retire-to-the-horse-ranch-in)

Before Jessy could go retire to the horse ranch in New Mexico with Cesar, he had to bury what was left of his brother.  That was the deal - once they got the thing that killed Matty, the Cuevas family would retire to the farm.  

And Jessy went through with it.  He wrapped his brother’s corpse in its shroud and lit it on fire and looked downright _relieved_ to see him burn.

I’m a bit worried for Sam.

[#spn 11x19 The Chitters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x19-The-Chitters)

* * *

 

[5/5/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143885174455/that-was-kind-of-awesome-a-son-saying-dad-your)

That was kind of awesome, a son saying, “Dad, your bullshit fucked me up,” and the dad tossing back all manner (disappointment in his progeny; cat video blog; dating his own creations isn’t _that_ the coolest) of diversionary irrelevancy and the son saying, “no, seriously, Dad, your bullshit fucked me up,” and the dad finally going, “all right, fine, I will attempt to clean up my own goddamn mess.”

[#spn 11x20 Don't Call me Shurley](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x20-Don%27t-Call-me-Shurley) [#I expect the 'clean-up' to be a single dramatic gesture](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-expect-the-%27clean-up%27-to-be-a-single-dramatic-gesture) [#suitable for a Greek Play](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/suitable-for-a-Greek-Play) [#and not the long term day-in-day-out effort that might](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-not-the-long-term-day-in-day-out-effort-that-might) [#eventually](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/eventually) [#start to fix things](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/start-to-fix-things) [#but it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-it%27s-hard-to-teach-an-old-dog-new-tricks)

* * *

 

[5/6/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143947909480/castiel-said-that-amulet-burns-hot-in-gods)

Castiel said that amulet “burns hot in God’s presence.”

I guess the Righteous Man has asbestos hands.

[#spn 5x02 Good God Y'all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x02-Good-God-Y%27all) [#spn 11x20 Don't Call Me Shurley](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x20-Don%27t-Call-Me-Shurley)

* * *

 

[5/6/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/143954712199/god-is-bisexual-thats-nice-who-was-god-dating)

God is bisexual - that’s nice.

who was God dating, though?  Could be other gods, I guess.  Kali did say her crew was there first.  I wish that was it… but that’s not it, because we know Chuck was with Becky.  

I find the idea of God “dating” his own creations even creepier than the Doctor and Rose or Angel and Buffy.  At least with them it was just a mind-boggling age disparity.  (seriously, what do you see in a girl 1/50 your age?  oh, the ~~total ignorance and inexperience~~  youthful innocence _is_ the draw?  how romantic.)  Chuck is Becky’s progenitor, infinitely older, larger, and more powerful than she is, and he also concealed his identity.  I’m not sure meaningful consent would ever have been possible for her, but Chuck there made sure it wasn’t even an option.

As noted above, the gods and goddesses of other pantheons were around, and theoretically available for romancing with Chuck.  Instead he chose to engage in a cute dorky awkward incest narrative with Becky.  This God is one creepy fucker.

[#spn 11x20 Don't Call Me Shurley](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x20-Don%27t-Call-Me-Shurley) [#spn 5x19 Hammer of the Gods](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x19-Hammer-of-the-Gods) [#spn 5x09 The Real Ghostbusters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x09-The-Real-Ghostbusters) [#kind of re-frames that 'too much respect for her' line](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kind-of-re-frames-that-%27too-much-respect-for-her%27-line) [#God is creepy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/God-is-creepy)

* * *

 

[5/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144156461581/green-circles-that-time-dean-had-a-broken-leg) [gifset of Dean in a cast]

[#spn 7x03 The Girl Next Door](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-7x03-The-Girl-Next-Door) [#still mad about the jeans under the cast](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-mad-about-the-jeans-under-the-cast) [#why not a big bathrobe and a pair of boxers?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/why-not-a-big-bathrobe-and-a-pair-of-boxers%3F) [#oh yeah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oh-yeah) [#because a character's humanity is in inverse proportion to the amount of skin they're showing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-a-character%27s-humanity-is-in-inverse-proportion-to-the-amount-of-skin-they%27re-showing) [#it's why so many of the female fan faves on spn are cops](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-why-so-many-of-the-female-fan-faves-on-spn-are-cops) [#they first appear in uniform](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-first-appear-in-uniform) [#we meet them as people before we meet their cleavage](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-meet-them-as-people-before-we-meet-their-cleavage) [#standard wardrobe rant](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/standard-wardrobe-rant)

* * *

 

[5/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144285492069/destielhiseyesopened-obsessionisaperfume) [gif of stowing an angel blade]

[#I always figured angels don't have pockets](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-always-figured-angels-don%27t-have-pockets) [#they have pocket dimensions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-have-pocket-dimensions) [#and can orient the openings in whatever direction is conveniently dramatic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-can-orient-the-openings-in-whatever-direction-is-conveniently-dramatic)

* * *

 

[5/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144286685609/why-are-planets-round) ["Why are planets round?"]

[#perennial question](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/perennial-question) [#is it that they think we're stupid](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-it-that-they-think-we%27re-stupid) [#and are writing down to what they think is our intellectual level](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-are-writing-down-to-what-they-think-is-our-intellectual-level) [#or are they really this dumb?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-are-they-really-this-dumb%3F) [#BOTH](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/BOTH) [#They really are this dumb](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/They-really-are-this-dumb) [#and they're sure we're even dumber](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-they%27re-sure-we%27re-even-dumber) [#AND](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AND) [#her husband agrees with them](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/her-husband-agrees-with-them) [#so none of his employees will fix their glaring continuity errors](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-none-of-his-employees-will-fix-their-glaring-continuity-errors) [#Dunning-Kruger as scriptwriting juggernaut](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dunning-Kruger-as-scriptwriting-juggernaut)

* * *

 

[5/13/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144327739504/sandraugiga-bagginshield-503-1121)

I took it as a reference to yet another quartet.  They’ve been doing things in [sets of four within-episode](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes) for a while now.  But also, they had Principal Salazar in _Fan Fiction_ and Rowena recurring, but so far no Helga or Godric.  Raphael is long gone, and now here’s a Donatello, but not Michelangelo or Leonardo.

Though, now that I say that, if you squint you could say Godric is God/Chuck, Michelangelo is the archangel Michael, and Leonardo is [Len Fletcher from _Thin Lizzie_](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3DLen_Fletcher&t=ZjNjYmQwNjBmNGE2ZmZiOTlhODBiNTIxN2QyZGEyMTE2MDczNTgxOSw1cnlZaHpwWg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F144327739504%2Fsandraugiga-bagginshield-503-1121&m=1).  Arguably at this point we’re only short a Helga.

So, possibly, the new prophet is meant to form a quartet with two absent archangels (one dead, one imprisoned) and the stalker who had his soul sucked by Amara..

[#spn 11x21 All in the Family](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x21-All-in-the-Family) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes) [#it doesn't look good for the new prophet there](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it-doesn%27t-look-good-for-the-new-prophet-there) [#soon to be dead or in jail](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/soon-to-be-dead-or-in-jail)

* * *

 

[5/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144589710994/no-one-thought-to-check-and-see-if-kali-wanted-in)

No one thought to check and see if Kali wanted in?  Or little Jesse Turner?  Maybe some of the un-damned souls in Heaven?  

[#spn 11x22 We Happy Few](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x22-We-Happy-Few) [#spn 5x06 I Believe the Children Are Our Future](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x06-I-Believe-the-Children-Are-Our-Future) [#spn 5x19 Hammer of the Gods](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x19-Hammer-of-the-Gods) [#With a word this child can destroy the Host of Heaven](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/With-a-word-this-child-can-destroy-the-Host-of-Heaven) [#Westerners I swear](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Westerners-I-swear) [#the sheer arrogance](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-sheer-arrogance) [#you're not the only religion and he's not the only god](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/you%27re-not-the-only-religion-and-he%27s-not-the-only-god) [#if it's an all-hands situation reach out to ALL HANDS](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-it%27s-an-all-hands-situation-reach-out-to-ALL-HANDS)

* * *

 

[5/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144597218005/justanotheridijiton-11x22-set-appreciation) [11x22 set appreciation photoset]

The [Works Progress Administration](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWorks_Progress_Administration&t=NmMzM2NjN2UxZjQ4ZGQ5Zjc4YmZjMTY2Zjg2ZjY4YWY2N2Y0NDEwNyxvSVVzRkVJdA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F144597218005%2Fjustanotheridijiton-11x22-set-appreciation&m=1) was a New Deal agency that sought to improve the economy by hiring people to build infrastructure.  Everyone banding together for the greater good, basically.  Sorta.  The WPA would hire _anybody_ who was out of work, and put them on whatever project was nearby.  There was not always a good match of skills to requirements, and sometimes the local labor was previously unemployed for good reason.  (See the “WPA concrete” on which the plot of _The Shawshank Redemption_ turns.  See also Bob Ewell in _To Kill a Mockingbird_ , unique in having been fired by the WPA for laziness.)

So here we’ve got God (government) hiring on anyone available to defend the public good, and getting… mixed results.

[#we need to bring back the WPA](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-need-to-bring-back-the-WPA) [#spn 11x22 We Happy Few](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x22-We-Happy-Few) [#MORE POWER](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/MORE-POWER) [#FIAT LUX](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/FIAT-LUX)

* * *

 

[5/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144773309502/their-god-is-a-vonnegut-god)  **Their God is a Vonnegut God**

That whole ‘this is your own fault” thing Chuck’s been doing for the past couple episodes seemed familiar, but it took me until today to place it.

“Asleep at the Switch” is a short story attributed to [Kilgore Trout](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FKilgore_Trout&t=ZDhmMTI0NmUxNDFmZDg1YjEzMzBiYTExYjM1MTI5MmIyY2U0ZmZjNCw4SEtId0hUbA%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F144773309502%2Ftheir-god-is-a-vonnegut-god&m=1) in Kurt Vonnegut’s _Jailbird_.  In the story, new arrivals to Heaven are greeted with an intake interview, the sole purpose of which is to enumerate to the incoming souls all the ways they failed to maximize their economic utility.  The hero, Albert Einstein, tries to present God with proof that not everyone can be rich at once, in hopes that God will then make the angels stop making people blame themselves.  But no.  Turns out it was God’s idea in the first place, and if Albert goes around telling people they’ll take away his violin.  

Chuck hasn’t been focused on economics, but still, he is a God willing to go to misleading and extortionate lengths to refuse blame for the condition of the world.

[#spn 11x20 Don't Call Me Shurley](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x20-Don%27t-Call-Me-Shurley) [#spn 11x21 All in the Family](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x21-All-in-the-Family) [#spn 11x22 We Happy Few](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x22-We-Happy-Few) [#Kurt Vonnegut](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Kurt-Vonnegut) [#Asleep at the Switch](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Asleep-at-the-Switch) [#Chuck is an irresponsible god](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Chuck-is-an-irresponsible-god) [#a cruel capricious irresponsible god](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/a-cruel-capricious-irresponsible-god)

* * *

 

[5/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144942630834/yellow-crayon-speech-for-the-win)

[Yellow Crayon Speech](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/142528146785/theyve-spent-another-season-nattering-on) for the win!

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega)

* * *

 

[5/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144961422369/toni-bevell)  **Toni Bevell**

Oh, goody, another female character with a boyish name.  This one introduced with the fake just-folks nonsense of (again) ordering a long term employee to pretend a class-flattening intimacy that the employee has already refused.  Toni’s the type who doesn’t hear ‘no’ much, and even when it’s said she doesn’t hear it.

About her travel arrangements: I can’t make sense of them.  That private jet is good thinking, a fine way to duck customs & immigration when you’re carrying contraband.  But… where did they land?  I was thinking Maine, or maybe somewhere in the Maritimes. But the next step would _not_ be instructing your driver to head for Kansas.  It would be re-fueling, changing pilots, and flying on to the Midwest.  Anywhere that it makes sense to offer “Kansas” as a destination, it makes sense to fly on from rather than drive.

And her mission: it’s implied that she’s been sent to arrest the Winchesters.  But, to my mind, the dialogue also allows the possibility that she’s been sent to offer them a spot at Men of Letters University.  The old men are tired of our boys stumbling around, so now they think it’s past time they were properly trained.  But Toni there knows what manner of violence these two are capable of, so she’s understandably nervous, and makes a grand mess of introducing herself.  

I’m up in the air over whether that will turn out to have been a warning shot.

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#Toni Bevell: acceptance letter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Toni-Bevell%3A-acceptance-letter) [#it'd explain that bit about whether this was the best use of resources](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27d-explain-that-bit-about-whether-this-was-the-best-use-of-resources) [#and why she was there alone](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-why-she-was-there-alone)

* * *

 

[5/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144963710659/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-sandraugiga)

[sandraugiga](https://sandraugiga.tumblr.com/post/144939480462): Oooooh! He literally pulled the beer associated with mothers OUT of the damned FRIDGE. 

dorkilysoulless: DID YOU JUST.

[sandraugiga](https://sandraugiga.tumblr.com/post/144953558212): Thinking about those Three Bean surprise from last year in that fridge. Mary was one, who could the other two be?

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144963144744): Dean drank three of the beers, too.

Mary, Deanna, Millie?

[sandraugiga](https://sandraugiga.tumblr.com/post/144963327472): Mary is the only one who was actually fridged. But I would love for them to bring all of them back.

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144963710659/sandraugiga-welkinalauda-sandraugiga): I was going with the mother-beer theme, and also Toni’s obsession-wall with the grandmother’s first names.  

It’d be nice if they defrosted Charlie.  

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#tin is in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tin-is-in) [#would have been nice if they'd bothered to make up maiden names for the grandmothers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/would-have-been-nice-if-they%27d-bothered-to-make-up-maiden-names-for-the-grandmothers) [#I suppose we could hand-wave Samuel & Deanna as distant Campbell cousins](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-suppose-we-could-hand-wave-Samuel-%26-Deanna-as-distant-Campbell-cousins) [#but Millie Winchester should have had a civilian surname](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-Millie-Winchester-should-have-had-a-civilian-surname)

* * *

 

[5/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/144990913534/so-this-was-todays-earworm-marni-nixon-chiming) ["Tonight", from _West Side Story_ ]

So this was today’s earworm, Marni Nixon chiming “Tony, Tony” over and over - my subconscious belatedly pointing out that Tony and Maria are Romeo and Juliet… and this season’s SPN cliffhanger left us with a Toni and a Mary, daughters of two houses, both alike in dignity, whose ancient grudge is breaking to new mutiny.

They’d make a heck of a pair of star-cross’d lovers.

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#Tonight (West Side Story)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Tonight-%28West-Side-Story%29) [#I'm just saying](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-just-saying) [#plus I want Sam to end up with Eileen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/plus-I-want-Sam-to-end-up-with-Eileen) [#I like Eileen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-like-Eileen)

* * *

 

[5/28/19](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145070654612/the-wisest-use-of-our-resources) T **he wisest use of our resources**

“Are you sure this is the wisest use of our resources?” she says, as the camera pans past these books.  I don’t read Greek and I can’t make out the title on the last one, but in between are  _Breaking the Curse_ , by R. Geir and _Revealing the Occult_ , by R. Leader.  Three of the books are from the Men of Letters Press, while _Breaking the Curse_ has a different publisher’s mark.

From those books I’m going to jump to the conclusion that the boy sleeping upstairs is under a curse, and Toni there is charged with breaking it.  And, rank speculation: that’s not her son, but a de-aged male relation.  Could be father, brother, or husband - each relationship would resonate with the Winchester family drama in different ways, depending on what direction the writers take next season.  Or possibly it’s a more complicated curse and he’s actually the man in the portrait over the fireplace in the study

 [#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega)[#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation)[#aka I make stuff up in hopes someone else will write the story](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/aka-I-make-stuff-up-in-hopes-someone-else-will-write-the-story)

* * *

 

[5/29/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145124599163/bluestar86-petition-to-have-sam-become-an) [Rowena threatens to turn Sam into a moose]

[#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation) [#she does it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she-does-it) [#he's a full-grown Canadian Alces alces](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-a-full-grown-Canadian-Alces-alces) [#seven feet at the shoulder and an enormous rack](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/seven-feet-at-the-shoulder-and-an-enormous-rack) [#not happy about this turn of events](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/not-happy-about-this-turn-of-events) [#he proceeds to kick the living shit out of his surroundings](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-proceeds-to-kick-the-living-shit-out-of-his-surroundings) [#Rowena's current red-shirted apprentice cowers in a corner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Rowena%27s-current-red-shirted-apprentice-cowers-in-a-corner) [#shrieking 'Turn him back! Turn him back!'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/shrieking-%27Turn-him-back%21-Turn-him-back%21%27) [#Crowley never lets any of them live it down](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Crowley-never-lets-any-of-them-live-it-down)

* * *

 

[5/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145184918161/resurrection-of-mary)  **Resurrection of Mary**

Billie raids the Veil for souls to put in the bomb.  Rowena pours those souls into Dean’s heart.  When nothing explodes, Chuck sucks the souls back out of Dean.  Chuck takes Amara’s hand, and only _then_ does she say she wants to leave Dean a parting gift.  Amara and Chuck make their swirly smoke-commingling exit into the sunset.  Dean eventually wanders out of that wedding venue and into the bushes, where he finds his mother.

Hypothesis: what was left of Mary has been in the Veil since her showdown with the poltergeist.  Her soul (or the fragments thereof) got caught in Billie’s sweep, and then went from Rowena’s crystal to Dean’s heart to God’s hand.  Some combination of the powers of God and Darkness turned what was left of Mary’s soul back into a corporeal woman.

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#resurrection of Mary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/resurrection-of-Mary) [#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics)


	6. June

[6/4/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145441469914/peter-pantomime-mittensmorgul)

But even if the protective markings were intact, this interloper had the key.  As an official member of the MoL, she’s got more right to the bunker than the Winchesters do - for all that they’re made it their home, they’re still only uninitiated legacies.

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#still think she's there to offer them a full ride to MoL school](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-think-she%27s-there-to-offer-them-a-full-ride-to-MoL-school)

* * *

 

[6/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145720455771/substandard-work)  **Substandard work**

That is one sad, sorry excuse for a family tree.  It raises more questions than it answers.  

Missing info includes:

  * Full birth names, including middle names and the women’s birth surnames.  
  * Dates of birth.
  * Dates of death.  (Or, ok, this is spn, dates after which there have been no confirmed live sightings.)  
  * A diagram connecting those “cousins” to the main tree.  



And why-oh-why are all the women listed only as “Firstname Husbandsurname”?  I don’t care how patriarchal your organization is, that is **not** best practice.

[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#I've been stewing about the lack of maiden names](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27ve-been-stewing-about-the-lack-of-maiden-names) [#for a few weeks now](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/for-a-few-weeks-now) [#coverture in action](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/coverture-in-action)

* * *

 

[6/13/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145866895810/sam-winchester-should-get-a-dog) [Sam Winchester should get a dog; no, an iguana]

[#s12 wishes:](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/s12-wishes%3A) [#we go back to Toni and Sam in the bunker](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-go-back-to-Toni-and-Sam-in-the-bunker) [#that was a warning shot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-was-a-warning-shot) [#she takes a step backward -](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/she-takes-a-step-backward--) [#- and trips over Sam's therapy iguana](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/--and-trips-over-Sam%27s-therapy-iguana) [#which snuck up behind her](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-snuck-up-behind-her) [#Sam disarms and immobilizes Toni](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-disarms-and-immobilizes-Toni) [#then scoops up the iguana](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/then-scoops-up-the-iguana) [#cooing 'Who's a good girl? Zilla's a good girl](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cooing-%27Who%27s-a-good-girl%3F-Zilla%27s-a-good-girl) [#Yes you are! Good Zilla!'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Yes-you-are%21-Good-Zilla%21%27) [#and Sam scratches her neck ridges](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-Sam-scratches-her-neck-ridges) [#While Zilla gives Toni the lizard-eye](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/While-Zilla-gives-Toni-the-lizard-eye)

* * *

 

[6/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146248106587/mittensmorgul-elizabethrobertajones)

I figured John yanked the boys around so much because he noticed a pattern of scary omens that showed up wherever the boys were, and he was playing keep-away with that.  At some point John figured out what he was seeing was demon sign and got really good at tracking it.  Lots of practice, I guess.  In _Swan Song_ , Lucifer tells us that there really were demons monitoring Sam the whole time.

Mary’s known relatives all dying like that couldn’t have helped John’s state of mind.

(I think John had a good reason to move the boys around.  This does not make it ok that he’d turned himself from father into drill sergeant and Dean from son into helpmeet before the boy hit third grade.  And I get that learning to do your own emotional labor is hard for a grown man, but some people - unlike John - _make the damn effort_.)

And as for playing favorites with the Winchesters - when Azazel made the deal with Mary, it was because he saw something in her.  No way to know what, exactly, because we didn’t get to hear what instructions Lucifer whispered to Azazel.  But I think Lucifer told Azazel how to spot a potential angelic vessel.  That’s what Azazel was selecting for in that round of deals, the genetic capacity to house Lucifer.  Azazel spots Mary, and she’s very much got it, so he goes to great lengths to secure a deal with her.  Along the way he came face-to-face with John.  It’s possible Azazel saw something in him, as well.  Not so strikingly as with Mary, but still.  The child of two people with potential like that… no wonder Sam got special attention.

[#spn 2x02 Everbody Loves a Clown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x02-Everbody-Loves-a-Clown) [#spn 3x02 The Kids Are Alright](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x02-The-Kids-Are-Alright) [#spn 5x22 Swan Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x22-Swan-Song) [#spn 4x03 In the Beginning](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x03-In-the-Beginning) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[6/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146398784997/pro-tip-dont-give-do-what-you-love-advice-to)

> Pro-Tip: Don’t give “do what you love” advice to people living “do what you gotta do” lives.

[I got very annoyed](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/138206320084/the-secret-to-a-long-and-happy-life) when Mildred was pushing that ‘follow your heart’ stuff, because Dean’s life is all about “do what you gotta do,” hand-to mouth, no stability, can’t afford to fuck around chasing heart’s desire.

except - I missed when the episode aired - Dean can _totally_ afford to fuck around.  

His youth and childhood, _that_ was hand-to-mouth desperation and no margin for error.  

The boys are still talking the talk and enacting the survival behaviors they acquired in their deprived childhoods.  They’re still claiming every bad decision was “I did what I had to do.”  But that hasn’t been true these past few years.  Ever since the boys came into their patrimony, they’ve had a safe, stable place to live with every possible convenience, no mortgage, and utilities gratis.  Their remaining costs - food, gas, clothing, bullets - could be covered with one part-time job.  They don’t even really need to steal any more.  

They have choices.  They have leeway.  They can make mistakes and not starve.  In show symbolism, [Sam’s still deathly afraid of clowns, but Dean’s fear of flying is no longer an issue.](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/133668645589/coulrophobia)

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#spn 8x13 Everybody Hates Hitler](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-8x13-Everybody-Hates-Hitler) [#Dean should totally stop making excuses and go for it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-should-totally-stop-making-excuses-and-go-for-it)

* * *

 

[6/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/146736344179/dustydreamsanddirtyscars-8x05-blood-brother) [Cain & Colette; Benny & Andrea]

[#cf Lisa Braeden](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cf-Lisa-Braeden) [#who didn't want Dean to stay *until* she knew who he was](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/who-didn%27t-want-Dean-to-stay-%2Auntil%2A-she-knew-who-he-was) [#Her love (I think) was unconditional](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Her-love-%28I-think%29-was-unconditional) [#but her welcome wasn't](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-her-welcome-wasn%27t) [#unlike Colette and Andrea](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/unlike-Colette-and-Andrea) [#Lisa had a child to consider](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lisa-had-a-child-to-consider) [#She ended up possessed for having harbored Dean at all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/She-ended-up-possessed-for-having-harbored-Dean-at-all) [#so Dean had her memory](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-Dean-had-her-memory) [#her self](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/her-self) [#hollowed out](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hollowed-out) [#What he loved isn't there any more](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/What-he-loved-isn%27t-there-any-more)


	7. July

[7/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147287115895/tonights-meta-a-negativity-in-three-parts) Tonight’s Meta: a negativity in three parts

## Part the First: Tumblr Ate My Draft

_Curse you, Tumblr, unto the deepest depths_

_\--_

## Part the Second: Wish Fulfilment Mary vs. 1983 Mary

Lots of Wish Fulfillment Mary (WFM) stories and art circulating right now, and - don’t get me wrong, I think that’s a fine thing.  It’s awesome that folks want to give Dean (who has not caught a break in 33 years) the good, accepting parent every one of us deserved and too many didn’t get.  

It’s just not _likely_ , to my mind.  

Mary Winchester was born in 1954 and died in 1983.  Had she spent the time between ‘83 and ‘16 living here on Earth, I expect she’d have become someone pretty close to the standard fanfic trope of WFM.  But she didn’t.  Yes, she used to be a hunter, and yes, she lived in a college town, both of which should make her a little more aware of the variety in the world… but still.  She was a working-class Kansas housewife with a mania for normalcy, and her social-justice development was arrested on the day she died.

I don’t think the resurrected Mary will start by being perspicacious and welcoming about her elder son’s profound bond with the male-bodied angel.  I think she’d start by being completely oblivious.  Once she got a glimmer of the possibility of the love that dare not speak its name, she’d be in denial (what I am seeing can’t be what is happening), confused (why isn’t Dean normal?), afraid (they will hurt him for not being normal), guilty (is it my fault he’s not normal?), angry at John (it’s John’s fault Dean’s not normal), angry in general - a kaleidoscope of negative emotions… and I think she’d stall out in 1983-standard bigotry, and contempt.  Contempt laced with pity and fear for his welfare, because she does love the little boy he was, but still, contempt.

\--  


## Part the Third: Absence of Character

I was trying to write the above in fanfic format, mostly because I had some good lines for Sam.  (After some exposure to 2016, 1983 Mary twigs to the Destiel and starts treating Dean with 1983-standard bigotry.  Sam corners her and tells her off.  “I’m your mother,” Mary says, and Sam tells her, “ **Dean** raised me.  You’re the name Dad and Dean built a myth on, and I gotta say, you are not living up to your press.”  There was more, but Tumblr ate my draft.  *sigh*)  

I couldn’t finish writing it, because I couldn’t write Mary’s half of the dialogue.  There has not been enough of the character of Mary Campbell Winchester presented on-screen for me to extrapolate what she’d say in a novel situation.  I don’t know if she’d yell back when Sam comes at her, or shut down & deflect, or something else?  I don’t freakin’ know.  

It’s been made clear that Dean remembers her as a specific person who did and liked specific things - but we-the-audience have what amounts to Sam’s POV on Mary.  She’s just the name attached to the myth of the perfect mother.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation) [#1983 Mary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/1983-Mary) [#Mother Mary as empty archetype](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mother-Mary-as-empty-archetype) [#story idea free to a good home](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/story-idea-free-to-a-good-home)

* * *

 

[7/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147295090559/larinah-replied-to-your-posttonights-meta-a)

[larinah](http://larinah.tumblr.com/) replied to your [post](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147287115895/tonights-meta-a-negativity-in-three-parts): _[Tonight’s Meta: a negativity in three parts](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147287115895/tonights-meta-a-negativity-in-three-parts)_

> I have many relatives from Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana, and I think you are absolutely right about how a Mary from 1983 would react. A Mary from 2016 would probably also react that way.

And doesn’t _that_ suck.  I want to think that if she lived the intervening years, Mary would have grown up to be a person who felt good about having a son with a limp wrist and a pulse… but really, I have no foundation for that.  Which goes back to the part where she’s an archetype, not a person.  Almost nothing they do with her next season could be out of character, because there’s almost no character there for new material to conflict with.

[#larinah](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/larinah) [#Mother Mary as empty archetype](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mother-Mary-as-empty-archetype)

* * *

 

[7/12/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147329310869/elizabethrobertajones-replied-to-your-post)

[elizabethrobertajones](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/) replied to your post [“larinah replied to your post:Tonight’s Meta: a negativity in three…”](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147295090559/larinah-replied-to-your-posttonights-meta-a)

> … someone’s still gonna whine she’s OOC though :P

Probably.  It might even be me - the Buckleming have an uncanny knack for finding novel ways to violate continuity.

[#elizabethrobertajones](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/elizabethrobertajones) [#Mother Mary as empty archetype](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mother-Mary-as-empty-archetype)

* * *

 

[7/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147636763957/doctorscienceknowsfandom-leftclausewitz)

[#good vs right](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/good-vs-right) [#my pet example: John Winchester](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/my-pet-example%3A-John-Winchester) [#dude was a lousy parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/dude-was-a-lousy-parent) [#absent but also yanking the kids around so they couldn't attach to anyone else either](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/absent-but-also-yanking-the-kids-around-so-they-couldn%27t-attach-to-anyone-else-either) [#BUT there really were demons chasing them](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/BUT-there-really-were-demons-chasing-them) [#John really *couldn't* trust anyone with the boys](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-really-%2Acouldn%27t%2A-trust-anyone-with-the-boys) [#cool motive still abusive parenting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/cool-motive-still-abusive-parenting) [#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[7/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147994148381/mother-mary-as-fandom-avatar)  **Mother Mary as Fandom Avatar**

You know how Becky, and then Charlie, were avatars for aspects of the fandom?  

I’m thinking the resurrected Mary would make an excellent avatar for the compulsory heterosexuality crowd.  [As I was saying last week](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/147287115895/tonights-meta-a-negativity-in-three-parts), Mary’s from Kansas in 1983, desperate for normalcy, apt to feel proprietary about the boys - neatly set up to miss/ignore/deny/explain away all manner of hints and subtext, and to react badly to plain statements that one of her boys is queer.

Then as the season goes on, the writers give her (and the audience) increasingly incontrovertible evidence that Dean and his angel are in love.  She reacts badly.  Sam yells at her.  Jody yells at her.   _Garth_ yells at her.  She learns to keep her uglier thoughts to herself, and seems to be on her way to dealing like a grown-up.

…then they kill her again.

[#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation) [#1983 Mary](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/1983-Mary) [#fandom avatars](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fandom-avatars)

* * *

 

[7/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148111163783/i-feel-like-im-gonna-real-love-a-lot-of-things)

What would Samuel Campbell have said about his daughter?  He was running around with Sam for almost a year.  The subject’s likely to have come up.  

Would the Campbell cousins have told family stories about Mary?  Or Deanna?

[#Mother Mary as empty archetype](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mother-Mary-as-empty-archetype) [#filling in the blanks](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/filling-in-the-blanks)


	8. August

[8/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148603190562/dcbb-entry-9) [[awed-frog ](https://awed-frog.tumblr.com/post/148493862077)and [grey2510 ](https://grey2510.tumblr.com/post/148494599903)speculate on what Sam was studying at Stanford, 'cause canon sure didn't say]

I think it’s more useful to go back a step, and ask _why Stanford_?  

I figure Sam wanted a California school for the nice weather and the great big mountain range between CA and his family’s Midwestern stomping grounds.  There’s a lot of schools in California, though.  Even if you trim the list to schools with a national reputation, there’s still dozens to choose from.  Sam was a kid with plenty of access to libraries and the skills to do all the necessary research, with no familial or geographic ties in California to skew his choices.  Stanford is one of the more-selective schools in California, so I think we can assume that since Sam got in there he could get in pretty much anywhere he applied.  

If Sam’s goal was to study math or any kind of engineering, he’d have gone to CalTech.  If he was interested in agriculture he’d have gone to Davis.  If he was going to college to study any one subject or as preparation for any specific job - including lawyering - there are other schools in California as good or better than Stanford.

So why Stanford?  Precisely because it’s not where children of the workers go to learn a profession.  It’s where the children of the bosses go to make contacts, and where the children of the workers go to learn to impersonate the children of the bosses.  A Stanford degree is an imprimatur of class status.   We’ve never been told what Sam was studying because his major was never important in itself, but only as a requirement toward that degree.  

Sam was looking to exit the working class.  After Stanford, the standard next step toward a well-respected, well-paid future would be either law school or an MBA program.  From his choice to go for law, I think all we can conclude is that Sam would rather read legal Latin than study accounting, and is likelier to have majored in philosophy than math.

 

 

 

[#spn class meta ](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-class-meta) [#Stanford era](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Stanford-era)

* * *

 

[8/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/148624055226/4persephone-winjennster) [John was abusive y/n]

 

The physical abuse involved in inflicting combat training on an unwilling child, routine abandonment, routine exposure to John’s alcoholism…

When they get going on “John wasn’t abusive,” I want to ask, what exactly do you think “abusive” means, anyway, and why so reluctant to use that label for John Winchester’s shitty parenting decisions?

 

[#John Winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[8/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149184794578/treefrogie84-and-todays-daily-dose-of-just-how) [Dean knows roofies]

Perhaps while burglarizing pharmacies?  They can’t stock their first-aid box legally, so I’d hope both of them would be able to identify a whole lot of painkillers and tranquilizers (and antibiotics) by sight.  

 

 

[#Does Dean do all the drug-stealing?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Does-Dean-do-all-the-drug-stealing%3F) [#or do they usually break in](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-do-they-usually-break-in) [#split up](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/split-up) [#Sam gets the antibiotics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-gets-the-antibiotics) [#while Dean gets the painkillers?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/while-Dean-gets-the-painkillers%3F) [#spn rank speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-rank-speculation)

* * *

 

[8/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149231712089/landofexpectations-heres-the-thing-sam-was)

 

Yes, this.  And further to that last point, John seeing Sam as a monster?  When Mary died, John didn’t know wtf had happened.  He didn’t know what she knew, neither about the supernatural nor about how to competently parent small children.  John’s information about the devilish plot that killed his wife improved as the boys got older.  His increasing knowledge, and his consequent increasing conviction of Sam’s monstrousness, would have coincided neatly with Sam’s increasing maturity, independence, and capacity for resistance to the family ethos.  

The more Sam became his own person, the surer John was that Sam was a monster.

 

[#john winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/john-winchester-is-a-bad-parent) [#so fucking textbook](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/so-fucking-textbook)

* * *

[8/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149253474764/justanotheridijiton-katherine-larsen-and-lynn) [Katherine Larsen and Lynn Zubernis. “We See You (Sort of): Representations of Fans on _Supernatural_.” _[Seeing Fans: Representations of Fandom in Media and Popular Culture](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomsbury.com%2Fus%2Fseeing-fans-9781501318450%2F&t=NmNjZjY4ZDRkMWM5MGYwZjFmOThjOTBjMWE0ZGE0MzRlNjA1ZmU0MixnV3piQkdZeg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F149253474764%2Fjustanotheridijiton-katherine-larsen-and-lynn&m=1)_. Ed. Paul Booth and Lucy Bennett. London: Bloomsbury 2016.]

 

Good article, and absolutely true about Singer not having the faintest idea what even happened there.

It would be interesting to add the Ghostfacers into the analytical mix.  They’re envious wannabes rather than fans, but I think they serve a similar metacritical function.

\---

Small correction: Demian and Barnes were mods at TWoP.  They were paid to write recaps and police the forums, so calling them “frequent commenters” is misleading.  (I can’t say how often they commented, though.  The SPN forums at TWoP were a massive ongoing clusterfuck of screaming wank, and I stayed far, far away.)

 

[#Robert Singer = Towelie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Robert-Singer-%3D-Towelie) [#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#I miss TWoP](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-miss-TWoP)

* * *

[8/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/149495160463/stiekemekat-stiekemekat-stiekemekat) [defense of Lisa Braeden]

 

[#^this](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Ethis) [#AND ANOTHER THING](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/AND-ANOTHER-THING) [#Dean and Lisa were not happily ever after](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-and-Lisa-were-not-happily-ever-after) [#but they spent a year sleeping in the same bed](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-they-spent-a-year-sleeping-in-the-same-bed) [#they thought very admiringly of each other](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/they-thought-very-admiringly-of-each-other) [#and once upon a time they were each other's Best Fuck Ever](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-once-upon-a-time-they-were-each-other%27s-Best-Fuck-Ever) [#<-canon](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%3C-canon) [#I hate it when people pretend that away](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-hate-it-when-people-pretend-that-away) [#in service to](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-service-to) [#The Hero Can Have Only One Meaningful Relationship](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Hero-Can-Have-Only-One-Meaningful-Relationship) [#Dean can have an essentially marital partnership with Lisa](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-can-have-an-essentially-marital-partnership-with-Lisa) [#without invalidating Destiel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/without-invalidating-Destiel) [#makes for a more interesting story too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/makes-for-a-more-interesting-story-too)


	9. September

[9/8/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150113613234/postmodernmulticoloredcloak-treefrogie84-i)

I don’t hear that story as “Dean got roofied.”  If they’d slipped him a mickey, Dean would not have been able to recall and narrate the scene after John arrived.  

I hear that story as Dean getting drafted into a game of Medicine Cabinet Roulette without his knowledge.  They slipped him _something_ \- and whatever it was, dosing people is assault - but it was for the fun of watching the kid freak, not for the purpose of rendering him easy to rape.

[he CBGB story](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/the-CBGB-story) ,  [SPN 10x9 The Things We Left Behind](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/SPN-10x9-The-Things-We-Left-Behind) ,  [my version isn't actually any nicer than the version with the roofies](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/my-version-isn%27t-actually-any-nicer-than-the-version-with-the-roofies) ,  [just less explicitly sexualized](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/tagged/just-less-explicitly-sexualized)

* * *

 

[9/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150175019999/dorkilysoulless-treefrogie84-i-have-mixed)

Dean grew up in a series of cheap motels.  That’s where a lot of sex work gets done, and where a fair number of sex workers live.  I think it’s plausible that the Winchester boys would get to hear the woman in the next room turn tricks all night, then get to make conversation with her in the laundry area the next day.  Just from that they’d pick up a lot of detail over the years about how that work gets done, what behavior distinguishes a good customer from a bad one, etc.

Which does not preclude the possibility that Dean did some hustling himself at some point.  Just, his attitudes and level of knowledge are consonant with existing canon, and can be explained without additional hypotheses.

[#John Winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[9/15/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150451957634/treefrogie84-i-am-really-certain-that-the)

My take was that this side of the room was half of an on-stage/audience dichotomy.  This side is brightly lit, with the Winchesters emoting in front of wallpaper last seen being ‘filmed before a live studio audience.’  Turn to the other half of the space, and there’s a guy sitting in a dark room, watching them emote.

What was meant by that, I don’t know, but I think that’s what they were trying to evoke.

[#spn 11x06 Our Little World](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x06-Our-Little-World) [#spn 5x08 Changing Channels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x08-Changing-Channels) [#the yellow wallpaper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-yellow-wallpaper)

* * *

 

[9/25/16 ](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/150901419593/happilysammy-the-supernatural-gif-challenge)[Lucifer making his pitch to Sam from the cage]

[#I wonder what Sam's answer would have been if Lucifer had just asked](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-wonder-what-Sam%27s-answer-would-have-been-if-Lucifer-had-just-asked) [#without the big tricksy con](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/without-the-big-tricksy-con) [#misleading visions and conspiring with the witch](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/misleading-visions-and-conspiring-with-the-witch) [#just made his plain case and said he'd check back in a week](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-made-his-plain-case-and-said-he%27d-check-back-in-a-week) [#willing to take 'no' for an answer](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/willing-to-take-%27no%27-for-an-answer) [#Sam might have said yes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-might-have-said-yes)

* * *

[9/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151151216370/treefrogie84-destielintheimpala-ive-seen)

Yes.

Well, I was mostly frothing over how now that it’s a man killing the thing that killed his brother, Dean’s all “gotta pitch in.”  But back when was a woman trying to revenge herself on the thing that killed her sister, Dean was all, “oh, no, revenge won’t help, and besides, the thing that talked your sister into running into the street also tried to convince my brother to run off into the streets, so it’s not actually evil, silly girl, just take my word for it and go home empty-handed.”  AND SHE DID.

[#spn 11x08 Just My Imagination](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x08-Just-My-Imagination) [#spn 11x19 The Chitters](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x19-The-Chitters) [#still mad about how they treated Reese](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-mad-about-how-they-treated-Reese) [#Sully is evil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sully-is-evil) [#but you're actually talking about something else](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-you%27re-actually-talking-about-something-else) [#and I'm interrupting](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-I%27m-interrupting) [#sorry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sorry)

 

 


	10. October

[10/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151581036259/mary-reads-the-gospels) **Mary reads the Gospels**

In re: [this interview](http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/151577149239/exclusive-our-interview-with-robbie-thompson): Down at the end, Robbie Thompson mentioned the idea of resurrected Mary reading John’s journal or the Edlund books.  John’s journal is alluded to in one of the promos, so there’s already been some speculation on that.

But what will she find if she reads the Winchester Gospels?

  * John’s lousy parenting.  Which she might not find surprising, given John and Mary’s intermittent marital troubles.
  * Sam’s love life, including monsters, demons, and the occasional unrepentant one-night stand.
  * Dean’s love life, including a lot of one-night stands, his attempt at a relationship with a black woman, his refusal to settle down with a single mother, his tastes in porn, and lots and lots of subtext.
  * The voicemail in Lucifer Rising.  Have the boys already cleared up the bit where Sam’s phone misquoted Dean, off-screen?  Be nice to know.
  * Both of her sons dying repeatedly.
  * All their friends dying, repeatedly.
  * Dean going to Hell.



And so much more!

I have _no idea_ how she’ll react to most of that, either.

Speculation welcome.

[#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation)

* * *

[10/13/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151757146036/what-do-you-think-of-shippermary)

[#spn season 12 speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12-speculation) [#^this](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%5Ethis) [#it's a better story all around](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-a-better-story-all-around) [#if she starts from 1983-standard nice white people opinions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/if-she-starts-from-1983-standard-nice-white-people-opinions) [#and works her way through the steps and stages](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-works-her-way-through-the-steps-and-stages) [#SLOWLY](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/SLOWLY) [#*not* a single-episode epiphany](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%2Anot%2A-a-single-episode-epiphany) [#to get to 2017-standard nice white people opinions](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/to-get-to-2017-standard-nice-white-people-opinions) [#while working through the SOP parenting tension](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/while-working-through-the-SOP-parenting-tension) [#between 'I want Kid to be happy'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/between-%27I-want-Kid-to-be-happy%27) [#and 'I expected Kid to be like me'](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-%27I-expected-Kid-to-be-like-me%27) [#I also want to see a scene](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-also-want-to-see-a-scene) [#in the bunker kitchen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/in-the-bunker-kitchen) [#Sam thundering at her that Dean's not a four-year-old](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-thundering-at-her-that-Dean%27s-not-a-four-year-old) [#but a grown man who's saved the world](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-a-grown-man-who%27s-saved-the-world) [#over and over](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/over-and-over) [#and she should show Dean some respect](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-she-should-show-Dean-some-respect) [#and of course Dean overhears it all](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-of-course-Dean-overhears-it-all)

* * *

[10/14/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151788050410/how-far-is-it-to-lebanon-ks) **How far is it to Lebanon, KS?**

 

  


Or about three hours’ walk.

Headcanon: the Mystery Spot advertised above is in Jericho, KS.  Gabriel is undercover there disguised as a cop.

[#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On) [#I don't think they're in Broward County any more](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-think-they%27re-in-Broward-County-any-more)

* * *

 

[10/14/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151788864384/sandraugiga-evenwraithsgetdirections-if-we)

YES.

IRL torture is an utterly unreliable means of obtaining actionable information.  If the victim doesn’t know anything, they’ll make something up to get it to stop.  Or if the victim does know something, the torture just reinforces the importance of safeguarding information from the evil enemy.  And they’ll also make something up to get it to stop.

On this show, torture is not just pro war crime propaganda, it’s also in-verse stupid.  The people being put to the question have almost always already endured subjective decades or centuries of the soul-tortures of Hell.  Why exactly are they supposed to be so easily persuaded by a few minutes of the corporeal version?

[#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On) [#all media is propaganda](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/all-media-is-propaganda) [#again with the torture](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/again-with-the-torture)

* * *

 

[10/15/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151829605282/upper-class-twit-of-the-year) **Upper Class Twit of the Year**

**Toni: Can we end this, Sam?  Please.  
Ms. Watt: Are you really going to make me do this?**  
Abuser 101: “Your failure to immediately acquiesce to my unreasonable demands compels me to coerce you into compliance; all blame for my actions falls on you.”

**Toni: There hasn’t been a monster-related death in Britain since 1965, because we are good at our job.**  
I wonder what happened in ‘65?  But more important, who’s ‘we’?  Our Miss Toni wasn’t alive in ‘65, and it doesn’t look like she routinely gets her own hands dirty now.  By her account, her organization is coasting on systems instituted at least a generation before.  She’s confused the continued efficacy of her predecessors’ methods with personal competence.  And what we’ve seen of her own work _isn’t_ competent: that [sad, sorry excuse for a family tree](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/145720455771/substandard-work), the arrogant stupidity of kidnapping Sam Winchester with intent to torture.  She’s basically George W. Bush, but with some gumption.

**Toni: I need you to give me names, and locations, and everything else.  Dead drops.  Meeting places.  An organizational hierarchy, because maybe, with all of us working together we can do what you never could.  Make America safe.**  
She has no imagination at all, does she?  She’s an authoritarian working in a hierarchical organization, so everyone is an authoritarian working in a hierarchical organization, and she will cling to that belief no matter what facts get tossed her way.  Sam could tell her the precise truth - that US hunters barely have a phone tree, much less an organized hierarchy, and that the last guy to try running dispatch is out of the game d/t werewolfism - and she’d probably discount it as Sam making shit up to get the torture to stop.  Of course Sam isn’t going to put her on to his drinking buddies or his favorite craft stores.  She’d just go trample them in search of her non-existent hierarchy.

It’s that arrogant, authoritarian stupidity that has her imagining that she can impose British MoL-style “safety” on North America.  I don’t think she understands the logistical challenge she’s proposing.

\-----

It is interesting, though, that Supernatural’s most prominent only-good-monster-is-a-dead-monster bigot was Gordon Walker, a black man.  Now they bring us arrogant, stupid bigot Toni Bevell, a white British woman.  And, of course, our white male heroes oppose their bigoted agendas with all their all-American hearts.

[#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On) [#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#spn 2x03 Bloodlust](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x03-Bloodlust) [#bad people proposing bad ideas](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/bad-people-proposing-bad-ideas)

* * *

 

[10/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151895648048/sandraugiga-awed-frog-seriously-i-dont-get)

The fandom adores Gabriel, too, and he spent most of his screen time psychologically torturing our heroes.  He spent two whole episodes explicitly trying to torture Sam into doing what Gabriel wants.

I don’t like Toni, but she’s not uniquely horrible in action or characterization.  Nor is she unique in being liked despite being horrible.  She’s just female.

[#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On) [#spn 2x15 Tall Tales](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-2x15-Tall-Tales) [#spn 3x11 Mystery Spot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x11-Mystery-Spot) [#spn 5x08 Changing Channels](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x08-Changing-Channels) [#I have bailed out of so many fanfics because Sam+Gabriel is normalized](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-have-bailed-out-of-so-many-fanfics-because-Sam%2BGabriel-is-normalized) [#Sam+Lucifer is usually depicted as abusive](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam%2BLucifer-is-usually-depicted-as-abusive) [#and the abuse is worth ending the relationship](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-the-abuse-is-worth-ending-the-relationship) [#with Sam+Gabriel all Gabriel's 'trickster' bullshit](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-Sam%2BGabriel-all-Gabriel%27s-%27trickster%27-bullshit) [#is treated as cute quirky amusing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/is-treated-as-cute-quirky-amusing) [#oh-so-endearing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/oh-so-endearing) [#no matter what the consequences to Sam or others](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-matter-what-the-consequences-to-Sam-or-others) [#it's never worth ending the relationship over](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/it%27s-never-worth-ending-the-relationship-over) [#...I may have taken this as an opportunity to rant](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/...I-may-have-taken-this-as-an-opportunity-to-rant) [#on a subject only tangentially related](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/on-a-subject-only-tangentially-related)

[10/16/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151901525794/awed-frog-welkinalauda-sandraugiga)

[awed-frog ](https://awed-frog.tumblr.com/post/151896736692)more on Toni

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151901525794/awed-frog-welkinalauda-sandraugiga) I don’t think I really disagree with you, other than that I _do_ dislike her.  She’s an upper class twit, completely ignorant of the degree to which she’s coasting on the efforts of others, ignorant in general, cavalier about authorizing brutality but squeamish about its application.  She really does put me in mind of the younger Bush.  (All of which is ticking me off - I don’t mind a female villain, but incompetence is annoying.)  

It’s just, fandom gives bad characters a pass all the time.  It’s SOP how folks are anticipating her redemption scenes and a romance with the unattached hero.   Probably it’s the confirmation bias of my dashboard, but I’m seeing a lot more ‘don’t hug the evil’ pushback for Lady Toni than I’ve ever seen for Lucifer or Gabriel or Crowley.  Who are all, coincidentally, played by white men.

…and I’m belatedly thinking of Amy Pond, who murdered and mutilated four men (that we know about), plus knifing her own mother in the back.  BUT!  She had that one really deep conversation with Sam when they were teenagers, and she’s a mother herself now, so seems like most of the fandom has declared her Not Really A Monster and thinks Dean was wrong to kill her.  Which complicates my original idea that which evils are woobifiable is a gendered phenomenon.

I need to go think some more.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#don't hug the evil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/don%27t-hug-the-evil)

[10/17/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151939585924/awed-frog-welkinalauda-awed-frog)

 

[awed-frog ](https://awed-frog.tumblr.com/post/151896736692)more on Toni

[welkinalauda](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/151901525794/awed-frog-welkinalauda-sandraugiga) 

“I should have picked a better-looking vessel.”

Maybe?  I have very positive associations with what I know of Curtis Armstrong (the last guy on the set of _Moonlighting_ everyone was still talking to; dude must be some kind of zen master of diplomacy), so I kept expecting Metatron to be better and smarter than he was in the show.  With the Amy Pond thing, it’s not that Jewel Staite is pretty, but that she was _Kaylee - s_ weet, harmless, couldn’t hurt a fly.  Amy Pond’s rationalizations for quadruple murder were persuasive because they were coming from Kaylee’s mouth.

As for ‘redemption arcs’ - that usually means ‘this villain is unusually popular; let us warp the character and the show out of recognition in order to get this guy more screen time.’  I liked Spike, until I watched him be ‘redeemed’ by creepily moping after Buffy every week.  I liked Crowley, and I like Mark Sheppard, but I wish they’d either kill him or spin him off, because the weekly side adventures of Crowley are not, imo, a net benefit to the overall narrative.

Gabriel I still like as a character, because he’s been used so sparingly.  However - the character is, in human terms, an abusive sadist.  The fanfic writing community seems to have collectively decided that his psychological torture of Sam Winchester counts as a meet-cute, and his ongoing disregard of consent and willingness to hurt people for the LOLs are adorably impish charm.  Which is not the same problem you were talking about above.

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#I am now late for work](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-am-now-late-for-work) [#maybe more later?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/maybe-more-later%3F)

* * *

[10/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152018788379/unlikely-but-entertaining-head-canon-toni-has)

I was [speculating about something like that](http://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/119795174929/binary-ternary) at the end of season 10:

> There should be a third.  Or rather, a second.  If the pattern holds, Oskar-called-Seth is the third son, the one that’s not like the other ones, the one who belongs to the mother.  Fergus-called-Crowley is the violent eldest, abandoned by his mother, set adrift.  There should be a second son of his father, the other half of Crowley’s matched set.  What happened to that boy?      

It would work out pretty neatly if Toni were descended from Abel, or Crowley’s legitimate half-brother, or both.

[#spn 6x19 Mommie Dearest](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x19-Mommie-Dearest) [#spn 10x22 The Prisoner](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x22-The-Prisoner) [#spn 10x23 Brothers Keeper](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x23-Brothers-Keeper) [#spn metaphysics](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-metaphysics) [#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On) [#or perhaps Toni's son should be the heir to all that](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-perhaps-Toni%27s-son-should-be-the-heir-to-all-that)

* * *

 

[10/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152064761903/the-angel-of-thursday) **The Angel of Thursday**

is back on Thursday.

[#no more of this Tuesday and Wednesday nonsense](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-more-of-this-Tuesday-and-Wednesday-nonsense) [#at long last](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/at-long-last) [#he's back when he belongs](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he%27s-back-when-he-belongs)

* * *

 

[10/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152075106238/moms)

[ameliacareful](https://ameliacareful.tumblr.com/post/151961515257): **"She has no relationship with these men. Relationships are built out of thousands of hours of shared, ordinary experiences. Habit. Instead she has two crazy men with expectations.**

**As a woman I can tell you what I feel when I’m with men with unrealistic expectations. I feel really uncomfortable."**

Excellent point.

Per Ruby & verified by Sam, all Mary’s friends and near kin were wiped out thirty years ago, _because_ they knew her, so that’s an extra twist of guilt.

Also, is Mary going to find it as creepy as I did that Samuel could be tempted out of his Heavenly rest to get Mary back?  And said it was because he never learned to live without her, when she was still living in his house when he died?  ‘Cause I thought that was major-league creepy.  (Mary may be less condemnatory of John’s parenting than we are, because John was a bad parent in ways that are consistent with the standardized masculinity of his generation, and because John may look good in comparison to Samuel.)

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn speculation](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-speculation) [#spn 3x02 The Kids Are Alright](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x02-The-Kids-Are-Alright) [#spn 6x10 Caged Heat](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-6x10-Caged-Heat) [#spn 12x01 Keep Calm and Carry On](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x01-Keep-Calm-and-Carry-On)

* * *

 

[10/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152106354766/really-really-hate-toni-and-it-isnt-even-mostly)

Really really hate Toni, and it isn’t even mostly about the on-screen rape and torture.  It’s her insistence that there _**are too**_ WMD hidden in that there desert, and if the prisoner she’s torturing doesn’t support the scenario she’s constructed to justify her invasion plans, well, that just means she hasn’t tortured him hard enough yet.  Any minute we’re going to find out American hunters plotted to assassinate her daddy 20 years ago.

[#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia) [#Toni Bevell is George W Bush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Toni-Bevell-is-George-W-Bush) [#I hate George W Bush](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-hate-George-W-Bush)

* * *

[10/21/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152108919565/misc-thoughts) **Misc thoughts**

Is it rape-rape if the mind-controlled non-con is a hallucination?

All the British accents sound fake to me.

I like the way they’re writing Mary, and I like the way Samantha Smith is playing her.  I do wish they’d spent less time meta-ing about their current situation and more time info-dumping.

John _was_ a great father - by the standards of the time and place Mary grew up.  Mary’s about to find out that John was a shitty _mother_ , though, who dumped the homemaking and childcare on Dean right quick.  Should be interesting when she realizes Dean’s a much better cook than she is, and works out why.

The writers keep making sure that Rowena’s boundaries are unenforced/ unenforceable.  I know she’s evil, but still, I wish they’d stop doing that.

The truck Castiel is driving is the same harvest gold as his Continental, and those braided carpets.  The hay is new…

(“There’s nothing like eating hay when you’re faint,” he remarked to her as he munched away.  
“I should think throwing cold water over you would be better,” Alice suggested: “–or some sal-volatile.”  
“I didn’t say there was nothing better,” the King replied. “I said there was nothing like it.”)

Dean eats like a well-mannered adult in diners, and like a half-civilized child when he’s in a home with a mother-figure at the table.

Dean finished off the other half of that sixer of Margiekugel from 11x23 - it’d be awesome if TPTB pulled three more mothers from the fridge.

(And thick and fast they came at last   
And more and more and more –)

 

[#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia)[#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega)[#Castiel's car](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel%27s-car)[#spn 11x12 Don't You Forget About Me](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x12-Don%27t-You-Forget-About-Me)[#John Winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Winchester-is-a-bad-parent)[#parenthetical Carroll](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/parenthetical-Carroll)

* * *

 

[ 10/22/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152147981488/at-the-end-of-into-the-mystic-we-see-sam)

At the end of _Into the Mystic_ , we see Sam surreptitiously adding a retirement home flyer to Dean’s Box o’ Memories.

At the end of _Mamma Mia_ , we see 

  * Sam handing John’s journal to Mary 
  * Dean in the kitchen with all the family photos he’s got, drowning his sorrows in the other half of that six pack of Margiekugel from  _Alpha and Omega_
  * Mary opening the journal, seeing an End ‘verse photo, and frowning.



## Hypothesis: 

Dean took only the family photos from his Box o’ Memories, then went to the kitchen to wallow with what’s left of the mother beer

Sam - without checking in with Dean - pulled the leftover photos from Dean’s Box o’ Memories, tucked them into John’s journal, and handed the lot to Mary.

 

[#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#spn 11x23 Alpha and Omega](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x23-Alpha-and-Omega) [#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia) [#Sam acting like a kid brother](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-acting-like-a-kid-brother)

* * *

 

[10/24/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152255491118/okay-what-i-really-dont-get-is-how-cas-so-placidly)

The problem, for me, is that walking Rick Springfield through every detail leading up to angelic possession was worth taking time for.  Laying out the precise current state of Crowley’s ambitions and relationship with his mother was worth taking time for.  Mind rape, torture, all the fight scenes - every minute of that was absolutely necessary to the story.

A scene spent moving Mick and Castiel into that basement, a line or two explaining why Castiel isn’t at the post-game team dinner - _those_ aren’t worth the time.

[#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia) [#Crowley = Spike](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Crowley-%3D-Spike) [#There are other ways to expand the cast](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/There-are-other-ways-to-expand-the-cast) [#and give the stars some down time](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-give-the-stars-some-down-time) [#besides giving the villains 'redemptions' and equal billing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/besides-giving-the-villains-%27redemptions%27-and-equal-billing) [#There's an extensive collection of secondary heroes here](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/There%27s-an-extensive-collection-of-secondary-heroes-here) [#How about we spend time with the B-Teams](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/How-about-we-spend-time-with-the-B-Teams) [#instead of cozying up to the villains?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/instead-of-cozying-up-to-the-villains%3F) [#And another thing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/And-another-thing) [#After all the time we've blown](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/After-all-the-time-we%27ve-blown) [#getting up close and personal with Crowley](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/getting-up-close-and-personal-with-Crowley) [#we should have a much clearer view of his motivations](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/we-should-have-a-much-clearer-view-of-his-motivations) [#but no](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-no)

* * *

[10/26/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152370017517/back-to-the-future) **back to the future**

 

  


Her hair, her outfit: it would all work in 1983.

I mean, I do want to get a better look at the waistband of her jeans before I Make Pronouncements - back in the day the waistband was supposed to hit your waist instead of somewhere south of your navel - but a black shaker-knit raglan sweater over jeans, basic layered above-the-shoulder hair, a ring on a chain?  She could go grocery shopping in this in 1983 and not raise an eyebrow.  

I <3 the stylists here, because they picked a look that a woman who was just transplanted from 1983 might choose on purpose **and** that works in 2016.  It’s designed to show off her character, rather than her cleavage.  And - surprisingly - she’s showing less skin than her sons.

[#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#standard wardrobe rant](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/standard-wardrobe-rant) [#because a character's humanity is in inverse proportion to the amount of skin they're showing](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-a-character%27s-humanity-is-in-inverse-proportion-to-the-amount-of-skin-they%27re-showing)

[10/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152415860304/back-to-the-future) …and the black is for mourning; the haircut is self-inflicted; the ring is on a chain because her husband is dead.  Like the ghost who possessed her, she wants her little children back.

They didn’t quite articulate this, but I gotta figure the microaggressions and invalidations coming from her adult sons had to have been accentuating the loss of her small children.  She was authority itself to her little ones, but to these grown men she’s luggage.  She’s [a bag left on the platform in Amsterdam](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DLUlH7bEa13Q&t=MGM4MTAxMWRkZTQ0MDA4ZGFhNzBjZDlmYjJlYjE3MmY0MWRhZmRlNSxXbmxEekpmcg%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F152415860304%2Fback-to-the-future&m=1) \- keeping her close is worth stopping all the trains… but her sons will not stop themselves long enough to _listen_ to what she has to say.

[#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#still <3 the stylists](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/still-%3C3-the-stylists) [#excellent work on their part](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/excellent-work-on-their-part)

* * *

 

[10/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152416985089/hugo-moriarty)

**Hugo Moriarty**

This week’s villain, driven mad by the loss of his child, and also

  * **Dean Moriarty** , of _On the Road_ Fame, for whom my woobie was named
  * **Professor Moriarty** , Sherlockian supervillain



[#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#I don't want to even start with Hugos](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-don%27t-want-to-even-start-with-Hugos) [#too many Hugos man](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/too-many-Hugos-man)

* * *

 

[10/28/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152433339429/promise-keepers)

**promise keepers**

In the previouslies, they included something I didn’t catch at all last episode, which was Lucifer-as-Jen promising to heal Vince’s sister before Vince caved and agreed to the vessel thing.  Then Castiel and Crowley go visit Vince’s sister, and she’s been freshly healed by Lucifer.  Which is interesting, because angels don’t typically keep their promises to mortals.  (Castiel promising Jimmy Novak that his family would be ok and then completely ignoring Amelia and Claire as their lives fell apart, for example.)  Demons, by contrast, generally do fulfill their contracts, though it might take a bit of arm-twisting to get them to come through.  

They talk and talk about how Lucifer is an angel, but here he is acting like a demon instead.

[#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia) [#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#which has me speculating that Lucifer did serve justice](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/which-has-me-speculating-that-Lucifer-did-serve-justice) [#on the man who killed Nick's family](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/on-the-man-who-killed-Nick%27s-family) [#but only off-screen](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-only-off-screen) [#...come to think of it](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/...come-to-think-of-it) [#that was another baby crying/empty crib setup](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/that-was-another-baby-crying%2Fempty-crib-setup) [#hm](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hm) [#spn 5x01 Sympathy for the Devil](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-5x01-Sympathy-for-the-Devil)

* * *

 

[10/30/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152503367154/changelings)

**Changelings**

> KATIE’S MOM: You eat. Mommy will be right back.
> 
> KATIE’S MOM goes into a bathroom, closes and lock the door behind her.
> 
> KATIE:  _(pounding on the door)_  Mommy? 
> 
> KATIE’S MOM: Just – just give Mommy a second.
> 
> KATIE: Let me in. Mommy! Let me in. _(pounding)_ Mommy! Let me in! _(pounding)_ What are you doing?! _(pounding)_ Let me in! Let me in! Let me in! Let me in! Let me in! Let me in! _(pounding)_
> 
> KATIE’S MOM: Give Mommy a minute! 

– from the [wiki transcript](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.supernaturalwiki.com%2Findex.php%3Ftitle%3D3.02_The_Kids_Are_Alright_%28transcript%29&t=MjE3YzhhMmMyNWQzYjc5OGJjMGJmMjJhYjdjMDYwNjk5YjEyMTRlMyxQU0hpUXdqRQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F152503367154%2Fchangelings&m=1) of _The Kids are Alright_

This isn’t really fair to Dean, or Sam, but you have to figure Mary was feeling a bit like Katie’s Mom, only double-teamed.  Here are these grown (changelings) men claiming to be her sons, calling her ‘Mom,’ but they’re _not_ her little boys and they can’t be really hers (can they?) and they’ve got her stashed _underground_ in some library-slash-Batcave and told her it was ‘home’ and wouldn’t hear of her leaving without them and omg what happens if she tells them no…

Happily, it turns out Sam and Dean will take ‘I am leaving and you can’t come with me’ for an answer, when she insists.  That bodes well for their eventual reconciliation, at least from her side.

[#spn 3x02 The Kids Are Alright](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x02-The-Kids-Are-Alright) [#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry)


	11. November

[11/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152682212870/other-folks-already-said-most-of-this-a-few-days)

Other folks already said most of this a few days back, but I want to get it neatly outlined for my own reference - 

Mary is Agent Shirley Partridge    
\- a single parent who traveled around with her children in a distinctive vehicle  
\- raising them to work together in the family business  
\- - a business she had put aside to raise her children, until she was widowed and kind of had to go back  
\- played by **Shirley Jones** on _The Partridge Family_

Dean is Agent Cassidy  
\- **Neal Cassady**  
\- - the real person basis for **Dean Moriarty**  
\- - TPTB named Dean, the heartthrob elder son on _Supernatural,_ for him   
\- **David Cassidy**   
\- - played the heartthrob eldest son on _The Partridge Family_  
\- - is Shirley Jones’s rl stepson   
\- - is the father of **Katie Cassidy**  
\- - - who played the demon Ruby on SPN  
\- - - who, in _The Kids Are Alright_ , set Sam to investigating his mother, which led to him finding that everyone who really knew Mary was dead  
\- - - - _The Kids Are Alright_  also featured   
\- - - - - a monstrous little **Katie** , whose mother is not sure that Katie is Katie  
\- - - - - monster Katie won’t give her mother any space  
\- - - - - children kept trapped underground to feed the parent monster   
\- - - - - a bunch more creepy parallels, right down to Sam being the one who torches the villain  
\- - - - - ends with Lisa asking Dean to stay with her and the boy who’s not quite his son, but Dean says, “It’s not my life” and bails

Sam is Agent Bonaduce  
\- **Danny Bonaduce** played the smart-ass younger brother on _The Partridge Family_  
\- and is well-known for his substance abuse problems

The villain of the week is Hugo Moriarty  
\- see Dean Moriarty, above  
\- and Professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes’s nemesis

 

did I miss anything?  I probably missed something

[#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#spn 3x02 The Kids Are Alright](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-3x02-The-Kids-Are-Alright) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#The Partridge Family](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Partridge-Family) [#some of this has to be coincidence](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/some-of-this-has-to-be-coincidence) [#doesn't it?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/doesn%27t-it%3F) [#one of the ghost children was named William Smithers](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/one-of-the-ghost-children-was-named-William-Smithers) [#I have no idea what Bill Smithers has to do with anything](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-have-no-idea-what-Bill-Smithers-has-to-do-with-anything)

* * *

[11/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152941217860/another-anomaly) **Another anomaly**

  


If I’m reading that right, Magda Peterson was 18 when she ‘died.’  

She was an adult.  Which would mean, her parents would not have had the right to refuse treatment on her behalf.  In the story as Beth presented it, the Petersons were not legally culpable for their daughter’s ‘death.’  

(If they coerced or manipulated her out of seeking treatment, they’re abusive.  If they physically prevented her from going to seek treatment, that’s kidnapping.  If they refused to assist her in seeking treatment after she was too sick to go anywhere by herself, that may or may not be a crime in Iowa law.  They’re not blameless or good people.  But unless they actually did the kidnap thing - which I’d think Beth would have mentioned, as she obviously doesn’t like the Petersons and has no trouble running her mouth to the FBI - they’re not legally culpable.)

In any case, none of it would ever have been within the jurisdiction of CPS.

 

The dates here could be a mistake by the prop crew.  Or, taken with the Camp Chitaqua photo and Lucifer’s promise to Vince that wasn’t in the show, it could be part of a pattern.

[#spn 12x04 American Nightmare](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x04-American-Nightmare) [#spn 12x02 Mamma Mia](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x02-Mamma-Mia) [#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry)

* * *

[11/9/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/152943631259/life-with-father) **Life with Father**

Sam and Dean come up the Peterson driveway, talking about being deserted by their mother, and walk into a neat Winchester Family parallel.  The Peterson’s boy Elijah is the helpful, compliant child.  Their (missing) daughter Magda turns out to be the family whipping girl.  

Sam and Dean split up, and are exposed to entirely different experiences of the family dynamic.  Dean gets to see Good Dad (Abraham), doing vehicle maintenance with his son, trying his best to learn a new lifestyle for his family’s sake, talking about how his offbeat philosophy comes from wanting the best for his children.  Sam gets a taste of Evil Mom (Gail), who (we find out later) isolates the kids from normal life, hurts them, insists that she’s doing what’s best for the family and really it’s the kids’ flaws that are _making_ her act this way.   I think both Gailand Abraham Peterson were supposed to represent aspects of John.

Last time Mary vanished on them, the boys were left with John to be both a a mother and a father to them.  John was a good-enough father figure, who did care about his boys and tried to teach them the skills he knew, while he was learning a new lifestyle himself.  John was a lousy mother, though, leaving all the scutwork and emotional labor to Dean, forcing physical danger and heaping loads of guilt on them, meeting all objections with “I’m doing this for your own good.”  However nice Good Dad may seem, all decision-making power in the family lay with Bad Mom.  He is the Abraham of [Gn 22:8-10](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.biblegateway.com%2Fpassage%2F%3Fsearch%3DGenesis%2B22%3A1-19%26version%3DNRSV&t=MzI4ZjliYzMzZGE1MjkzMDQzODk5YTQ0ODEzYWQyYzU2OWU3MTFkZixHWk9wb3lQYQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F152943631259%2Flife-with-father&m=1), ready and eager to follow orders and sacrifice his child.  She is the gale that blows him where she will.

 

Due to their differing experiences with the Petersons, Sam immediately locates the source of the trouble as within the family, while Dean is eager to blame interfering outsiders.  

Sam’s right, of course.  He does his best to save the family from Gail (John), but he’s too late to help Elijah (Dean), and can only rescue Magda (himself) - and that only temporarily.

Dean finds out that his externalizing of blame was factually wrong, and has an (off-screen) conversation with the lady from CPS.  And we don’t know what was said, but I suspect that this

> DEAN: Sometimes in order to figure things out, a person needs space.  
> BETH: Agent, can I talk to you?

is Dean quoting Beth in front of her, and her taking him aside to commend him on being quick on the personal growth.

 

It looks as thought Sam’s intervention will allow Magda to survive her messed-up family, but in the end, the only Peterson left alive is Gail, who tried to destroy them all.  

Conversely, John is the only Winchester still dead.

[#spn 12x04 American Nightmare](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x04-American-Nightmare) [#the name game](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-name-game) [#John Winchester is a bad parent](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/John-Winchester-is-a-bad-parent)

* * *

 

[11/11/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153072543739/marvs-house-of-doors-chairs-ships-and-lights) **Marv’s House of Doors, Chairs, Ships, and Lights**

 

  


[photos and feuds behind the cut]

A gratuitous very wide shot of the entire store frontage, where rather a lot of ornate gates have been left out overnight, vulnerable to thieves and weather.  Marv’s is a house of many doors.  Perhaps a reference to Castiel’s long-running feud with doors, and how he’s on the outside right now.

Lots of chandeliers and lamps, nearly all of which are wired and lit.  May be a play on Lucifer’s name.  Maybe they just wanted to show off their chandelier collection?

Chairs, many chairs, all displayed in the Shaker style, which is not generally the best way to treat an antique chair.  [[The Shakers used to put peg-rails around the interiors of their rooms](https://jdavidsen.wordpress.com/tag/the-shakers-shaker-design-out-of-this-world/), so that they could get chairs & stuff off the floor for ease of sweeping.  Shaker chairs were designed and built to be alternately sat on and hung up on a routine basis.  Marv’s got some big heavy upholstered chairs hanging from his walls, which were definitely **not** designed to be treated that way.]

I think they wanted to get Sam’s chair nemeses prominent in the frame.

Dean is pratfall-clumsy with that British ship, much the way he had trouble with the fence last episode.  It’s a marked contrast with how competent and certain Dean is when he’s punching Hitler in the face.

* * *

And more lamps and chairs and ships, in front of the hidden door

that hides Marv’s secret business.

[#spn 12x05 The One You've Been Waiting For](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x05-The-One-You%27ve-Been-Waiting-For) [#Castiel vs. doors](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel-vs.-doors) [#Sam vs. chairs](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-vs.-chairs) [#Dean vs. ships](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-vs.-ships) [#and maybe some wing pareidolia on the gates](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-maybe-some-wing%C2%A0pareidolia-on-the-gates)

* * *

 

[11/18/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153337074784/pizza-and-beer) **Pizza and beer**

  


The boys drop in on Jody (the insistently self-identified mother with the 70s-style house) and she feeds them pizza pie, the supper of found family.    
Dean and Jody are wearing the same plaid.

Dean remarks on the unlabeled beer, which turns out to be home-brew.  Bucky keeps a churchkey around his neck, just for that.  
 _Foreground_ : yet another source of blessable water.  
 _Background_ : Castiel’s carpet.

[#spn 12x06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x06-Celebrating-the-Life-of-Asa-Fox) [#Castiel's carpet](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Castiel%27s-carpet) [#pepperoni pie](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/pepperoni-pie) [#no-name beer](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/no-name-beer) [#Dean doesn't know the rules](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-doesn%27t-know-the-rules)

 

[sandraugiga:](https://sandraugiga.tumblr.com/post/153352492382) Woah! Nice spot!

Also, Dean continues to have some trouble with how some things don’t have labels.

[spadeart:](https://spadeart.tumblr.com/post/153355241462) Sam is also wearing the same plaid later in the ep. I think, yes?

 

[#spn 12x06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x06-Celebrating-the-Life-of-Asa-Fox) [#and this is the scene where Sam's the one stuck in the middle](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-this-is-the-scene-where-Sam%27s-the-one-stuck-in-the-middle) [#like Dean used to be with Sam and John](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/like-Dean-used-to-be-with-Sam-and-John) [#trying desperately to smooth over every conflict](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/trying-desperately-to-smooth-over-every-conflict) [#because in this family arguments escalate](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/because-in-this-family-arguments-escalate) [#and end up apocalyptic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/and-end-up-apocalyptic) [#the black-and-white plaid of emotional labor?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-black-and-white-plaid-of-emotional-labor%3F)

* * *

[11/19/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153400052153/hot-pursuit) **Hot pursuit**

 

  


The marker is Emerson, Manitoba.  Lawrence is just west of Kansas City, almost 800 miles south.  So, what if: 

Mary got wind that her werewolf-that-got away is back in business, say, up around Omaha.  She makes up a family emergency.  Some Campbell cousin (they’re not all dead yet) backs her story to John.  One of her civilian friends in Lawrence (they’re not all dead yet) comes in to take care of infant Dean while she’s away.  Mary borrows a car from the garage, maybe?  The werewolf bolts, and she has to chase it another 600 miles up Interstate 29.  The werewolf assumes she’ll respect the human-made international border, and takes a break to sniff out a kid to snack on.  Mary chases the monster down and kills it.

It takes two days to drive home, where her friend is mad because a ‘few days’ taking care of Dean turned into a week.  John is mad because that car was supposed to go back to its owner four days before.  

Dean is just happy to see her.

[#spn 12x06 Celebrating the Life of Asa Fox](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x06-Celebrating-the-Life-of-Asa-Fox) [#iiii writes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/iiii-writes)

* * *

 

[11/20/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153437693144/postmodernmulticoloredcloak-awed-frog)

But the thing is, in this way, Sam’s just a normal guy.  The shortage of empathy and emotional awareness noted above?  That’s a fairly standard result of the way we raise boys in modern America.  

We teach boys that emotional labor (like housework) is something they don’t need to notice or care about because it’s both beneath notice and someone else’s problem.  They aren’t asked to do it.  They’re rebuffed if they try: see all the times Sam has asked Dean to talk to him and Dean wouldn’t.  They’re routinely prevented from getting the foundation from which to even try, as exampled by Sam knowing only carefully edited versions of family stories.  They’re taught to center their own needs (Lucky Charms) and blithely assume that those around them will do the same.  

Sam’s not emotionally immature.  He’s emotionally ordinary… for a guy.

[#Sam is just a guy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-is-just-a-guy) [#Dean on the other hand](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-on-the-other-hand) [#Dean was raised the eldest daughter](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-was-raised-the-eldest-daughter) [#he was the helpmeet and Little Mother](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-was-the-helpmeet-and-Little-Mother) [#kept the house in order and smoothed over the conflicts](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/kept-the-house-in-order-and-smoothed-over-the-conflicts) [#I find Dean a lot more relatable than Sam](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-find-Dean-a-lot-more-relatable-than-Sam) [#I was raised a daughter too](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-was-raised-a-daughter-too)


	12. December

 

 

 

[12/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153949574036/more-quartets) **More quartets**

That oddly-assorted group in the limo: publicist, Satan, mogul, musician.    
The mogul and the publicist mistakenly imagine this is an ordinary attempt at a revival.  Not-Russell Simmons keeps on imagining that, even after a visit from his old friend Crowley ought to have tipped him that this wasn’t ordinary.  Dude should have known better.  (Though, if he’s been dealing with Crowley all this time, he has a skewed idea of how well supernatural beings will honor their contracts.  He doesn’t yet know of the perfidy of angels.)    
Satan is still a whining toddler/ selfish jerk/ tantrum-throwing oversized baby/ &c., ad infinitum.  
The publicist, the only woman in the car, keeps doing her job right up until a man is made to kill himself in front of her… at which point she tenders her resignation to her client’s bandmate and bails out.  I like her.  I’m glad she lived.  
Tommy _knows_ someting is wrong, and he keeps coming back for more.  Dude lacks genre-savvy.  And anything resembling sense.

The band, back together.    
Vince and Tommy: see above.  The unnamed two seem outright addled - seriously, they were supposedly professional musicians at some point, who knew Vince Vincente intimately.  And now Mr Front Man hasn’t even shown for sound check, much less joined them in the studio while they were supposed to be working on their comeback album.  But still they’re happy!  Looking forward to finding out in front of a live audience whether Vince can still play!  They make no sense except as cannon fodder.

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#more foursomes](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/more-foursomes) [#the only one who survived is the one who walked away before the ending](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-only-one-who-survived-is-the-one-who-walked-away-before-the-ending)

* * *

 

[12/2/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153962189210/who-does-lucifer-love)

Possibly relevant: Lucifer going out of his way to heal Vince’s sister, even though it wasn’t part of the original deal, and the way Show retconned that healing into a condition of Vince’s possession.

 

 

[#spn meta](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-meta) [#spn 12x03 The Foundry](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x03-The-Foundry) [#spn season 12](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-season-12) [#Lucifer didn't have to do a damn thing for Wendy](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Lucifer-didn%27t-have-to-do-a-damn-thing-for-Wendy) [#but he did](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/but-he-did) [#just because Vince loved his sister](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/just-because-Vince-loved-his-sister) [#Then after they're fronting like Lucifer *had* to](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Then-after-they%27re-fronting-like-Lucifer-%2Ahad%2A-to) [#'performing' Lucifer for us-the-audience](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%27performing%27-Lucifer-for-us-the-audience)

* * *

 

[12/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153984721052/is-this-the-same-photo-that-was-behind-brenda-lee)

 

 

 

 

 

 

  


Is this the same photo that was behind Brenda Lee Johnson’s desk on _The Closer_?

(I thought that was the Santa Monica Pier, but a closer look and some googling and I think no, that’s actually Manhattan Beach.  Anyone know for real?)

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#the scenic route](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-scenic-route)

* * *

 

[12/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153985470784/belated-epiphany) **Belated epiphany**

 

 

 

 

 

 

It took them mentioning Pamela Anderson for me to twig - Vince (Neil) & Tommy (Lee) are the lead singer and drummer for Mötley Crüe.  Which makes the drunken pervs in the green room Nikki Sixx and Mick Mars.

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#writers got no respect for the LA metal scene](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/writers-got-no-respect-for-the-LA-metal-scene)

* * *

 

[12/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/153998144883/postmodernmulticoloredcloak)

oh, huh - earlier, just as Sam was about to drink the cucumber water, Castiel showed up and Sam set his glass aside untasted.  Here, Dean enjoys a refreshing sip.

 

 

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#Sam cucumber-blocked by Castiel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam-cucumber-blocked-by-Castiel) [#Dean *not* cucumber-blocked by by Castiel](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean-%2Anot%2A-cucumber-blocked-by-by-Castiel) [#...it kind of bothers me that I find this suggestive](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/...it-kind-of-bothers-me-that-I-find-this-suggestive)

* * *

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ 12/3/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154002579184/jerry-wanek-was-on-fire-for-this-one) **Jerry Wanek was on fire for this one**

From the lobby of the Bellaqua Hotel:

I thought it was wind socks or something, but no - that’s four pairs of US flag long johns lined up on a pole, stuffed, bound with ribbon, with little round mirrors over the crotches, all shoved in a corner behind the baggage carts.  It’s a callback to the Stars & Stripes motif of yore (with the symbolism of stars/heaven and stripes/hell working together), _**plus**_ an echo of the bondage allusion in the Enochian handcuffs, _**plus**_ narrative mirrors in place of genitalia… shoved in a corner behind the baggage carts.

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#the scenic route](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/the-scenic-route) [#hilarious AND deeply symbolic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/hilarious-AND-deeply-symbolic) [#I want to know if they made it in house](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-want-to-know-if-they-made-it-in-house) [#or found it somewhere](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/or-found-it-somewhere) [#(Has anyone got started on the decor of the green room](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/%28Has-anyone-got-started-on-the-decor-of-the-green-room) [#with that Hey Bulldog poster?](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/with-that-Hey-Bulldog-poster%3F) [#I'm having trouble getting clear shots of the room)](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I%27m-having-trouble-getting-clear-shots-of-the-room%29)

* * *

 

 

PUBLISHER: Dean’s favorite song?  
DEAN: It’s a tie. Between Zep’s “Ramble On” and “Traveling Riverside Blues." 

“Traveling Riverside Blues,” aka “The Lemon Song,” d/t the lyrics

Squeeze me baby, ‘till the juice runs down my leg  
Squeeze me baby, 'till the juice runs down my leg  
The way you squeeze my lemon, I  
I’m gonna fall right out of bed, bed, bed, bed, yeah

 

 

 

 

[#spn 4x18 The Monster at the End of This Book](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-4x18-The-Monster-at-the-End-of-This-Book) [#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#he used to choose lemons](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/he-used-to-choose-lemons) [#now he's all about the cucumber](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/now-he%27s-all-about-the-cucumber) [#tasty tasty cucumber](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/tasty-tasty-cucumber)

* * *

 

[12/7/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154195625783/the-devil-is-pink) **The Devil is Pink**

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kinda? 

I mean, besides Mark Pellegrino saying he thought Lucifer’s wings were pink.

On the bus last night “In the Flesh” from _The Wall_ started playing in my head (as it does sometimes).  It struck me that Pink’s, “I’ve got some bad news for you, Sunshine: Pink isn’t well; he stayed back at the hotel, and they sent us along as a surrogate band - we’re going to find out where you fans really stand,” works as a statement of the Devil’s intent for the concert at the Meteor.  The audience was lured in with the promise of a Ladyheart show, but, sad news, Vince was left behind a few hotels back and his replacement just murdered the band.  And now, Lucifer wants to test where these fans _really_ stand - do they love “Vince”?  Enough to hurt themselves?  Will they put each other up against the wall on his say-so?  

I don’t think Lucifer = Pink works all the way through.  They’ve both got the lost father and the everybody’s-fault-but-his isolation and that poor abused groupie.  I think there’s even a workable argument that Sam = Pink’s wife.  But I don’t see a good correspondence for Pink’s mother, and she’s kind of the keystone of _The Wall_.

But still.   _The Wall_ starts with

 

 

> So you thought you  
>  Might like to **go to the show**.  
>  To feel the warm thrill of **confusion**  
>  That **space cadet** glow.  
>  Tell me is something eluding you, **sunshine**?  
>  Is this **not what you expected to see**?  
>  If you wanna find out what’s behind these **cold** eyes  
>  You’ll just have to claw your way through this **disguise**.

12x07 is all about glamours and impersonations and putting on a show.  Castiel is our sunshine and Lucifer burns cold.  

Then in the green room, we’ve got Tommy in a Pink Floyd shirt, with Robbie the Robot on his shoulder:

 

 

[#spn 12x07 Rock Never Dies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x07-Rock-Never-Dies) [#The Wall](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/The-Wall) [#Pink Floyd](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Pink-Floyd) [#Robbie the Robot](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Robbie-the-Robot)

* * *

 

[12/10/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154281277839/mr-ketch-pulls-up-to-the-cool-jazz-strains)

Mr Ketch pulls up to the cool jazz strains of “Take Five.”

The anti-Lucifer [Five-Man Band](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Ftvtropes.org%2Fpmwiki%2Fpmwiki.php%2FMain%2FFiveManBand&t=ODNkYThkYjQ4MjI1NDlkNjIwNTJiNzBlMTM3NWE0OTk0ZDIxNDZjMyxCNnJWelZ5Ng%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154281277839%2Fmr-ketch-pulls-up-to-the-cool-jazz-strains&m=1) (witch, angel, king, giant, fireman) gets back together for one last show.  
[”The Chick is often considered the heart of the group. This role is played by a woman or girl. Someone female. Otherwise, it is not a Five-Man Band.”  Cf. Ladyheart.]

They set their stage in room 5 at the Plains Motel.

After the show, Castiel tries to treat Kelly to lunch at the Five Corners Cafe, but she slips out the back instead.

 

 

 

 

[#spn 12x08 LOTUS](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-12x08-LOTUS) [#this episode was brought to you by the number five](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/this-episode-was-brought-to-you-by-the-number-five) [#Dave Brubeck](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dave-Brubeck) [#Take Five](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Take-Five) [#Five-man band](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Five-man-band)

* * *

[12/25/16](https://welkinalauda.tumblr.com/post/154945352370/i-saw-three-ships-come-sailing-in) **I saw three ships come sailing in...**

 

 

 

It’s Christmas Day in the morning.  I’ve got [that song](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQ5MNiukRWmA&t=ZmRlNjYwMTU1MmJlZjVmNDUwYjI5OTFkOWQ2ZmE3NzY4ODMwNGI5YixzSmZEQ1RRTQ%3D%3D&b=t%3A0uBFBznWrCGtBXYYAWqPPA&p=https%3A%2F%2Fwelkinalauda.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F154945352370%2Fi-saw-three-ships-come-sailing-in&m=1) in my head.  Let’s get this flotilla started.

 

Dean & Castiel:

[USS John C. Stennis/photo by the US Navy]

Big enough to launch aircraft off of.  Plenty of ink’s been spilled on the whys and wherefores, so take a moment to admire it - _Damn, that’s a **ship**_ \- and we’ll move on to the next boat.

\---

Sam & Eileen:

[[Martha’s Vineyard Ferry](http://www.capecodchamber.org/cape-cod-islands-ferry-schedules)]

They’ve got similar backgrounds, they’ve both completed their revenge quests, and they’re all cute and smiley when they look at each other.  I want Eileen to move in to the bunker dormitory next episode she’s in, so that she’s literally the girl next door when she and Sam get together.  

(and! each later episode she’s in, they should stunt-cast somebody who was in _[Jericho](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805663/)_.  Which would eventually bring us Gabriel back.)

\---

Mary & Cain:

[my nephew, age seven, paddling a sailboard/photo by my brother-in-law]

While our Blessed Mother is out wandering in the wilderness, looking for herself or whatever, I figure she could easily stumble across the Father of Murder* who’s also out searching for meaning in a post-Darkness world.  They’ve both tried putting down roots and it ended badly; they’re both outside their natural span and removed from their own time.   Mary notices that Cain is one fine figure of a man.  So they decide to wander on together.  They try to make the world a better place, Cain by saving people, Mary by hunting things.  Dean covers his extreme discomfort with all this by making one-armed man jokes.

* Cain’s not dead.  Why would he be dead?  We didn’t see his body.  We didn’t even see the blow land.  NOT DEAD.

[#I Saw Three Ships](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/I-Saw-Three-Ships) [#Barenaked Ladies](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Barenaked-Ladies) [#spn 10x14 The Executioner's Song](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-10x14-The-Executioner%27s-Song) [#spn 11x11 Into the Mystic](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/spn-11x11-Into-the-Mystic) [#3 kinds of ships: canon possible and crack](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/3-kinds-of-ships%3A-canon-possible-and-crack) [#Dean&Castiel is a mighty big ship](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Dean%26Castiel-is-a-mighty-big-ship) [#Sam&Eileen is a lighthearted ship on its way to somewhere fun](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Sam%26Eileen-is-a-lighthearted-ship-on-its-way-to-somewhere-fun) [#Mary&Cain is barely even a boat and it's missing a sail](https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/Mary%26Cain-is-barely-even-a-boat-and-it%27s-missing-a-sail)


End file.
